


Once Upon a Dream

by kingdomkeeperofthelibrary



Category: Kingdom Keepers - Ridley Pearson
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Never Met, F/M, Memory Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-05-26 13:43:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 54,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15002102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdomkeeperofthelibrary/pseuds/kingdomkeeperofthelibrary
Summary: They knew there was danger in stopping the Overtakers in 1955. They knew messing with time could mean they'd never have met each other. But somehow, they never thought those dangers would be realized. When the Keepers find themselves on an alternate timeline where they never met, and the Kingdom Keeper adventures only exist in a book series, its up to super-fan Casey Jordan to reunite the Keepers, and convince them that they lived lives they don't remember. But the Keepers did not become the same people alone that they did together, and not everyone is willing to believe Casey's theory. With the Overtakers appearing to be on the rise once again, will the Keepers be able to regain their memories and stop them, or will the obstacles of time become too much to overcome?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I'm so excited to share this story with you all! This is my first Keeper multichap in years and I'm so happy with how it's coming out so far! I've started things off for you with a prologue and chapter 1, so I hope you enjoy!

He sits in the center of the Magic Kingdom, late at night, staring up at the giant castle. The kingdom is glowing, each building illuminated with a thousand tiny lights, and radiating all the magic that had always been promised to anyone who stepped foot in these borders. The boy smiles, surrounded by his six closest friends, all of them laughing as they recount the different times they’ve been here.

There  are a million things to focus on, but the only thing he’s really aware of, making him feel warmer than the humid Florida night air, is the girl holding his hand and resting her head on his shoulder, her dark brown hair billowing down his back and tickling his neck. Her eyes are focused out in front of them, and so he turns to look at her; she is the most beautiful sight he’s ever seen, or that he’ll ever see; no one will ever make him happier than she does, he’s certain. She turns, noticing his gaze, and chuckles at him before they exchange smiles, and turn their attention back to their friend, going on about some new computer software he’s been researching.

The boy closes his eyes and breathes a sigh of relief. Closing out all other senses, he can hear nothing but the sound of his friends’ laughter. Around them, characters that most people believe to be fictional, walk through the kingdom. From princesses and princes to talking animals to fairies: they are all there, enjoying their home. The boy knows that, more than anywhere else, this is his home too.

Someone suggests they all go on a ride. There are shouts of agreement, and he joins in, but really, he’d rather stay right where he is right now: bathed in light, these people that he thinks of as a family around him, this girl on his shoulder. Just then, he can’t feel her on his side anymore, and he looks up to see her standing above him, holding out her hand. Feigning exhaustion, he falls back in despair, laughing as she rolls her eyes, before accepting her hand and joining the rest of the group.

She gives him one final look before they all run past the castle gates, ready to go on with an adventure that only they know the thrill of experiencing. As they run, a breeze brushes his face, his girlfriend squeezes his hand, and all around him is pure joy: this, he is sure, is how he always wants it to be.

Just then, Finn Whitman wakes in his bed, panting with excitement, trying to understand the details of what had just happened.

 _Strange dream_ he thinks, before pulling his blanket up a little further, and going back to sleep. He’ll forget it all by morning.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 1!

“I think I found them.”

Casey Jordan slid excitedly next to her best friend on the Cafeteria bench, a wide look in her eyes.

“What?”

Erin Davies, Casey’s best and only friend, stared at her with wide eyes, taken aback by Casey’s sudden exuberance.

“The Kingdom Keepers,” Casey explained. “I think I found them.”

Erin sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Please don’t tell me you’re still on that,” she said.

“Of course I’m _still on it_ ,” Casey said. “Somebody has to be!”

 _The Kingdom Keepers_ was a popular series of books about a group of kids stopping the Disney Villains, known as the Overtakers, from taking over the Disney parks, and the world. Just having wrapped up a couple of years earlier, it was one of Disney’s latest cash cows: everyone who wasn’t living under a rock had heard of these books. There were movies and video games, the Disney parks displayed posters and sold merchandise, it was often hailed as the next _Harry Potter_.

Growing up in Orlando, Florida, with a Disney Imagineer for a father, Casey adored the books; she was the self-proclaimed biggest fan (and proclaimed by others as well). They’d always seemed to provide a sort-of companionship: even when others, including Erin, didn’t understand her, the Keepers did. The Keepers made her feel a greater sense of belonging than she ever had anywhere else.

Recently, while spending an afternoon at the Magic Kingdom-an activity she often partook in- Casey had come to believe that the stories were real, that the Kingdom Keepers were real, and so she’d spent the past month dedicating all of her time to studying the books and Orlando-based social media accounts to try and find them. Erin was the only person she’d told, and this had consequently lead her best friend to believe she was going crazy.

“Listen to yourself Casey,” Erin chided. “This is nuts!”

“No it’s not!” Casey argued. “I’m telling you that I saw that doll move on _It’s a Small World_.”

“Yeah, the dolls move,” Erin said. “That’s the point.”

“That’s what Gary said in the books when Kim first thought she saw the dolls move,” Casey pointed out. This earned a subsequent eye roll from Erin. “And look where they ended up!”

Casey referred to a famous scene in the books, where the Kingdom Keepers were attacked by the moving dolls on _It’s a Small World_. Casey, while last riding the ride, was sure that she had experienced the same sensation.

“You can’t be serious about this,” Erin said.

“That doll didn’t just move. It stopped doing the dance, and _looked_ at me.” Casey explained. “This can’t be a coincidence.”

“Maybe it’s just you being delusional because you read those books too much,”

Erin meant the remark as a joke, but Casey sighed. When she told Erin about what she’d seen, she knew she wouldn’t believe her. Still, she’d held onto a little bit of hope that being best friends since they were six would give her some kind of credibility. Erin, seeing Casey’s disappointment, sighed and restored the conversation to be more serious.

“What are you even planning on doing when you find these people?” she asked. “Even if it’s real, you think they’re just going to tell you?”

“No,” Casey said. “Because they don’t remember who they are.”

“What?”

“You know how at the end of the last book, they were coming back from 1955, and they knew they might not remember, but it cuts off and no one knows what happens after that?”

One of the things that had made the Kingdom Keepers books so famous was their ambiguous ending. In the last three books, the characters had traveled to 1955 to stop the Overtakers from ever existing. Of course, the book had pointed out, doing so created the possibility that the group of them never would have met. On the last page of the series, the Keepers were traveling back to the present, and the book ended before they got back: no one knew whether they remembered or not.

“So you’re just going to go up to some random people and say ‘hey I think you’re a book character and I need you to save the world’?”

“Exactly!”

Erin chuckled and looked away, but Casey was insistent.

“Look,” she said. “I know this sounds nuts, believe me I do, but, I just can’t shake this feeling that I’m meant to do something about this. I feel like this is my shot, you know….to be something more.”

Erin looked back over at her friend, who was now looking at her with soft, pleading eyes. She sighed with a smile. Casey may be crazy sometimes, but she loved her, and eleven years of being best friends at least earned her the benefit of the doubt.

“Fine,” she teased. “But don’t call me for bail when you get arrested for stalking.”

Casey smiled brightly and the two girls burst into a fit of laughter, before Casey pulled out her phone and slid it excitedly over to Erin on the table. Erin looked down, and Erin saw seven names, listed next to the main-character names from the book

_Liam- Finn Whitman_

_Darren- Dell Philby_

_Sophia- Willa Angelo_

_Gary- Terry Maybeck_

_Kim- Charlene Turner_

_Olivia- Amanda Lockheart_

_Jamie- Jessica Lockheart_

* * *

 

After school, Casey and Erin were walking on the usual path they’d take to get home, and Casey had already dragged them deep into conversation about her plans.

“So how do you plan on finding these people?” Erin asked. “Don’t they go to school? Like in different places?”

“It’s the end of May,” Casey explained. “Most colleges are done by now. And I found them all on social media remember? They’re all home: here in Orlando.”

 “Oh my God, Casey,” Erin sighed. “Seriously: you’re looking to go to juvy aren’t you?”

Casey was barely paying any attention, just kept looking at something down on her phone, and concentrating on where she was going. She didn’t comment on Erin’s remark.

“When are you even planning on doing this?”  Erin asked, jogging to keep up with her friend. “We’re trying to finish out sophomore year here, remember? The World History final is supposed to be brutal!”

Casey still said nothing, but instead turned somewhere that they normally didn’t. Erin sighed and followed her, confused. Finally, she reached the place where Casey had stopped, and looked up to see the Orlando Rec Center standing tall in front of them. She looked to Casey, and saw her wearing one of her huge, overconfident grins, usually the way she smiled before she led them to do something completely stupid(like the time they rode Rockin’ Roller Coaster immediately after each drinking a giant milkshake.)

“Oh no,” Erin scolded, realizing what Casey meant by this. “No! Casey this is nuts!”

“It’s not nuts, it’s necessary,” Casey replied, adamantly. “Who knows how long I have to find these people before the Overtakers get control of everything?! And I still have to get them to believe me once I do!”

Erin stood there dumbfounded, stuttering, racking her brain to try and come up with the best excuse as to why they couldn’t go through with this, because clearly, “you’ll get arrested for stalking” wasn’t working. She’d been hoping that afternoon that she’d have more time to try and drive Casey away from this whole latest insanity, or at least for Casey to calm down and realize how crazy it was herself.

“What about your Mom?” she asked. “Are you just gonna tell her you’re running around town looking for strangers that you found on the internet? _Adult_ strangers?”

To that, Casey pulled out her phone once more, typed something quickly, then looked at Erin with a snide smirk.

“I told her I’m catching a movie with my Dad,” she said. “Airtight alibi: she’s always yelling at me to spend more time with him,”

Erin sighed painfully, well aware of the fact that she’d already lost this battle.

“This is a really stupid idea,” she insisted.

“When has that ever stopped me before?” Casey asked, before charging forward and walking through the rec center doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So right now I'm planning on doing 2 chapters a week. That may have to slow down if I'm running low on chapters, but for now I'm going to try and post on Thursdays and Sundays. I really hope you guys are as excited about this story as I am! I'm excited to share it with you!


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm back with Chapter 2! Glad to hear from some of you that you're enjoying the story! I'm so excited to finally be sharing it! Today we really get the ball rolling, and you'll meet the first of the Keepers. Who is it? You're about to find out! Enjoy :)

Finn Whitman was shelving art supplies in the rec center where he worked. He ran the desk at the kids club, where parents could drop off their kids to hang out and do crafts and things while they went to the pool or to play sports. It had been fairly quiet so far in the week since he’d started, with all the local schools still in session until the end of the month. He’d get a few kids too young for school, and a couple stragglers after school, but not much more than that. His days, for the meantime, were completely uneventful.

He wasn’t complaining: less visitors meant less work for him. After a tiring semester, quiet work days were just what the doctor ordered. Quiet shifts meant uncomplicated shifts, which meant no problems for him to deal with after words, which meant he got to go home and relax with potato chips and Netflix all the sooner.

Finn was your average twenty year old, just having completed his sophomore year at a local school, studying business. He had an average family-two parents and a little sister- average friends, and an average everyday routine. A week ago, when the semester had ended, he’d gotten the job at the rec center to save up for a car. Life was good as far as he was concerned, simply because there was nothing to really make life all that bad. He’d never had anything to complain about.

Lately though, he’d had the strangest feeling that something was missing. This had been bothering him, because he’d never really felt it before. Sure he’d never been all that popular, but he’d never been un-liked at school either, and it didn’t bother him. He was content with his life. But suddenly, nights spent watching whatever the latest comedy was after a run around the high school track weren’t satisfying. Even when he was out with his best friend, who was the only close friend he’d ever really felt he needed, something wasn’t right.

The only problem was, he didn’t know what it _was_ that was missing. The kids getting drunk at school every weekend didn’t intrigue him, but what he was doing wasn’t cutting it either. None of the girls at school caught his attention, and he wasn’t in desperate wanting of a relationship either. He’d had one girlfriend in high-school, Sally Ringwald, and it had never even approached anything close to serious. He didn’t actively want anything that he didn’t have, but still, the feeling nagged at him…you need something.

His Mom would say he needed a girlfriend. His Dad would say he needed more friends. His little sister Katie would say that he needed to get out of the house and stop being, in her words, “such a loser,” But none of that seemed right to him. He had no idea what could possibly make him stop feeling so…boring.

As he continued to slide paint bottles into plastic drawers, the bell above the door rang, signaling the entrance of a new customer. He turned to see two girls, a little younger than him, entering the center. He rolled his eyes; he dealt with this a lot, last summer too: teenagers wanting to come in just for the joke of it.

“Hey girls sorry,” he said, pretending he wasn’t annoyed. “We have an age limit of eleven for the activities,”

Despite this, one of the girls approached the desk, a ridiculous grin on her face.

“I can’t believe it’s you!” she squealed.

“Excuse me?” Finn asked.

“You’re just….exactly how I always pictured you, and nothing like I pictured you all at the same time! This is incredible, Hi!”

The girl’s voice only raised in pitch as she went on, and she edged closer and closer to him. Finn, now officially concerned, reached over to have his hand on the office phone, ready to call security.

“Oh no!” the girl exclaimed. “Sorry, I totally forgot to introduce myself. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m Casey: Casey Jordan.”

“ _Casey_?”

“Yeah I know it’s a little uncommon, but I’ve found the ways to fall in love with it. My Mom and Dad met during their Disney college program working at Casey’s and my Dad went on to become an Imagineer so they named me Casey, after the hot dog place. Of course…they are divorced now, so it’s really just like I’m named after a hotdog rather than a birthplace of love, but….”

Casey clearly had no idea that she was rambling, nor that she still hadn’t explained what Finn wanted to know. He simply raised his eyebrow at her, then noticed the other girl standing in the back, and looked to her for an explanation.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” she said. “I’m just here to make sure she doesn’t get arrested. She’s not crazy: I promise, at least not in the dangerous way.”

She turned to Casey then.

“Case?” she said. “You wanna explain yourself?”

This finally broke Casey’s endless stream of explanations, and she looked back to Erin, who motioned her hands to indicate to her to get on with what they were really here for. Casey startled with realization before laughing nervously and turning back to Finn, a more serious look on her face now.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “I just got excited. You and I need to talk.”

“Excuse me?” Finn exclaimed, still not completely ready to give up on calling security.

“I don’t wanna say too much right on the spot here, but let’s just say that it’s a matter of life and death.”

“You need me to call 911?” he yelled. “Why didn’t you say that sooner?!”

“No!” Casey exclaimed, reaching out and holding his arm to stop him from dialing the phone.

“It’s not something they can handle,” she explained, her voice close to shaking. “It can only be you…and six other people…but definitely you. It needs to be you.”

“You’re scaring me kid,” Finn said.

He still had no idea what Casey wanted, or what at all she was talking about, and he’d only grown more concerned for his safety as time went on, rather than less. Even the other girl in the back, happy-go-lucky and seemingly on his side before, was frowning.

“Do you know the _Kingdom Keepers_ books?” Casey asked, confusion and fear easily showing through in her voice.

“Yeah, what about them?”

“Is there anyone else who can watch the desk for a bit? I think you’re gonna wanna be sitting down for this.”

* * *

 

            “You’re out of your mind kid,” Finn said, sitting across from Casey at one of the room’s activity tables.

It was ten minutes later, and Casey had just explained her plight to Finn.

“Look I know it sounds crazy…” she started to protest, but Finn cut her off.

“It doesn’t _sound_ crazy; it _is_ crazy,” Finn argued.

Casey leaned back in her chair and sighed. She had prepared herself for it to come to something like this when she found the keepers, and yet it still stung. Part of her had still wanted to believe that it would all go smoothly, that they’d just tell her they believed, or better yet, that they remembered, and together they’d stop the Overtakers just like in the stories she’d grown up adoring. She needed to learn to stop basing her expectations on dreams.

“Finn, please just hear me out,” she pleaded. “Even if you don’t believe that you’re someone else, just hear me out that something is going on,”

Finn said nothing, and Casey saw this as an invitation to continue.

“I _know_ I saw that doll in Small World do something it wasn’t supposed to do. And normally I’d agree that it was probably just a trick of my mind, but I know I saw something that day. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t one-hundred percent certain.”

Finn said nothing again, but Casey saw a more serious look in his eyes than had been there before. He stared into space and rubbed his chin with his hand. Casey held back a smile.

 _It’s working_ she thought.

“Who did you say you think I am?” he said after a while, his voice strained and sounding tired.

“Liam,” Casey said. “Have you read the books?”

“Yeah,” Finn said. “Everyone under the age of 23 has read them,”

“So then you must be able to tell!”

“Tell what?” Finn asked. “I’m nothing like….Liam,”

Finn hesitated as he said it, pushing back what he immediately knew was true. He was nothing like Liam: but he used to be. Years ago…he used to be.

“You _are_ like Liam, Finn,” Casey insisted. “I wouldn’t have found you if you weren’t.”

“Look,” Finn stuttered, trying to move on quickly to ignore the war of confusion trying to start in his head. “If I thought this could be true…and I’m not saying I do…what would it involve?”

“No commitments yet,” Casey said brightly, trying to hold back her excitement as best she could. “Just meet me at the Earl of Sandwich in Disney Springs tomorrow at five. We’ll talk more then. Can you do that?”

Finn looked straight at Casey, whose eyes were pleading with him, carrying all the innocence that fifteen year old eyes should. At the very least, Finn thought, he could see this through to tomorrow to please her. She seemed like a sweet kid after all.

“I can’t make any promises, but…” Finn started.

This was enough to send Casey into a fit of squealing. She leapt up out of her seat and ran to the other end of the table, throwing her arms around Finn in a tight hug.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” she squeed.

Finn, unexpectedly, couldn’t help but smile. Somehow, it made him feel good to know he was making this random stranger of a girl happy. Erin walked over then and grabbed Casey by the arm.

“Come on Case,” she said. “Time to leave him alone,”

“Here’s my number,” Casey said, handing Finn a small index card as Erin tried to pull her towards the door. “In case you need to contact me for any reason,”

“Come on,” Erin repeated.

As they walked towards the exit, Casey’s eyes still never left Finn, a big, stupid grin on her face. Once they were out of the door, Erin popped her head back in for a moment.

“Nice to meet you!” she called to Finn, and then, just like that, they were gone.

Finn chuckled as he heard the sound of the door closing. He thought he’d witnessed his fair share of crazy experiences in his twenty years, but this one certainly took the title of the craziest. But Casey seemed thrilled, and, he figured, what harm could it really do to play into her fantasy for one evening?

He walked around the still empty children’s center, and found himself standing at the bookshelf, where his eyes immediately fell upon a full set of the _Kingdom Keepers_ series. He chuckled, picking up the first book and flipping the pages through his fingers. A memory came to him of being ten years old, reading it for the first time, completely enchanted with the whole concept…pretty much like Casey was now. He’d grown out of them as the years went on, not caring as much about what happened, but reading it still just to finish out the story. Still, he had to admit, holding the books or talking about the stories still filled him with this unidentifiable sense of magic, made him feel young again, and, though he wouldn’t admit it, he was sometimes just as interested as he was sure Casey would be about what happened to the Keepers after the final book’s end.

Him being Liam; he laughed: there was a thought. Liam Kane: the closest thing to a main character the series had; Liam Kane: the leader, the guy who inspired his friends, brought everyone together, made brave sacrifices for the people he loved, was as close with his family as he was his best friends, got the girl….to compare himself to Liam Kane was laughable. He might as well be calling himself Mickey Mouse. Any traces in him of anything close to Liam’s life had faded away before he even reached high school. Still….

He shook his head and put the book back on the shelf. This was ridiculous. He was getting caught up in childhood memories and letting himself give thought to something that was too ridiculous to even earn consideration. He let the moment go, and started to make his way back to his desk.

But then, something wouldn’t let him leave. His eyes fixed on the set of books again, and a flash of a memory came to him…of a weird dream he’d had nights ago. Why that dream came to him now he had no idea: he could barely remember it. But it seemed almost clearer now. A flash of an image came to his mind, of Cinderella castle, of voices around him, familiar voices, but voices of people he knew he’d never met. And something was tugging at him. That dream….these books….connected somehow.

In an instant, the moment was gone, and any thought that he might remember what he’d dreamt about was gone. Once again, all traces of it were in that crazy dream-abyss, just out of reach of retrieving. He made his way back to his desk and resigned to forget that anything had happened.

He was going to Earl of Sandwich tomorrow to make Casey happy, and to make sure she didn’t pursue this to a point of it being dangerous: that was all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Finn in this world? Who do you think we'll meet next? See you on Thursday with Chapter 3! Stay magical Keepers! Anything and everything is appreciated :)


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Keepers! It's time to meet two very important characters. Who do you think they are? Enjoy the chapter!

Later that evening, Casey stood in front of _Alcott’s_ , a local restaurant where she knew she’d find the last two Keepers. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. She’d spent all afternoon searching, alone for most of it, as Erin had gone home a while ago. The Keepers were scattered all over Orlando and, being that she currently only had her learners permit to drive, she’d had to bike everywhere. Getting them all to agree to meet her had been no easy task, much less so than it had been with Finn. She’d been met all day with pushback and confusion, sometimes even anger, and it hadn’t taken long for it to become discouraging. This, she had quickly been forced to realize, was going to be a lot harder than she’d hoped.

Still, she knew she needed to push through. If she was going to succeed at this, she couldn’t stop trying: not for anything. Looking up at the restaurant’s sign, she took a deep breath. Judging by her predictions, this encounter would either be the easiest, or the hardest, of the day, all depending on what had remained constant on this particular timeline, something which she had no way of being sure of. Planting her feet firmly on the ground, she let herself be filled with a renewed sense of confidence: the former of the two options was just going to _have_ to be the one that was true. With that, she soldiered forward, and pushed through the doors.

It was around seven o’clock now, and the restaurant was loud and alive with the dinner crowd. Alternative rock blasted over the speakers, and tables full of friends and families chatted loudly, sharing drinks and plates of burgers and fries. Casey smiled and let out a breath; this was it.

She caught a flash of something by the podium, and she turned to see a waitress with long, wavy, dark hair and freckled, tan skin bringing a tray of dinners to a family seated at a table near the front, and she recognized her immediately: _Amanda Lockheart_.

Casey covered her mouth to stop herself from squealing: Amanda’s character, Olivia Kendall, was her favorite character in the _Kingdom Keepers_ series. To see her in front of her now was like something out of a dream, more so than it had been to meet all the others. She was so lost in her excitement, she didn’t hear the voice asking her if she needed help.

“Hello?” it called.

Casey startled and looked up to see Amanda standing in front of her.

“Sorry, what?”

“I asked if you were waiting to be seated,” Amanda said, sounding slightly annoyed.

“Oh!” Casey stuttered. “No…I uh….ah….actually I was hoping I could talk to you,”

“If you’re looking to get a sponsor for your school event, you’re out of luck. We’ve already fulfilled our allotment for the month,” Amanda said. She picked up a stack of menus and started to turn to another family.

“No wait!” Casey called. “My name’s Casey Jordan. I’m not looking for anything for school. I really was looking to talk to you, specifically you: Amanda Lockheart.”

Amanda froze and looked Casey up and down for a moment.

“I don’t know you,”

“Yes I know, but I still need to talk to you, and your sister: it’s urgent,”

Amanda looked around her to make sure no one was watching, then hastily showed Casey over to a corner where they couldn’t be heard or seen.

“What do you know about me and my sister?” she demanded.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” Casey assured her. “It’s about these books…”

Casey reached into her bag and pulled out the first _Kingdom Keepers_ book, holding it just high enough for Amanda to see it.

“I think you’re connected to it,” she continued. “And I think you know it too. And I think something’s happening. I just want to talk,”

Amanda looked at her with a hard face for a moment, seemingly mulling things over.

“Our shifts end at 9:30,” she said quietly. “If you can wait around here until then, we can talk. I can get you soda and fries on the house, but anything else you’ll have to pay for.”

Casey hesitated; she’d already worn out the movie excuse-and told her mother they were getting dinner an hour ago: she didn’t have much longer until she’d be expected home, or otherwise find herself in deep trouble. She really should tell Amanda that she couldn’t wait. But then her eyes glanced down at the book in her hands, and she remembered all that the characters went through, and she looked back up to Amanda, her eyes confused and knowing. This was her destiny now: she was sure of it; she had a job to do that was bigger than her.

“I can wait,” she said, standing taller with the new sense of determination that had come over her. 

“Great,” Amanda said plainly. She turned back around to her podium and grabbed a menu.

“I’ll show you to your table.”

* * *

 

              For as long as she could remember, Amanda Lockheart’s life had been far from normal: orphaned at an age so young she could barely remember life before it, spending her entire adolescence on the run, keeping to the shadows, and, of course, there was the part about having magic powers. She’d discovered her abilities when she was very little, dreaming one night of flying, and waking up to find herself hovering over the bed. In the weeks following, she’d learned that it was something she could control too, and that there was so much more to it than she’d first thought. Of course, her powers had brought her much more trouble than they were worth.

Once her parents were gone, Amanda hadn’t spent time in the foster system like any other kid. Instead, she’d been confined to a government facility, Barracks 14, filled with other kids like her: all of them orphans, all of them possessing some kind of unnatural ability. Subjected to strict routines and harsh testing, her time there was nothing less than torture. There, she’d met a shy girl with pale hair who could dream the future. They called themselves sisters, made a pact to always protect each other, and, when they reached the age of thirteen, snuck out of the facility and started living their lives on the run.

In all of her experiences, Amanda had learned only one way of living: surviving. She didn’t have time for sentimentality, or friendship, or dreaming; she had one priority: staying on her guard. Anyone could be someone who would betray her and her sister, who would give them away and send them back into the hell they’d barely escaped from; trust was not a word that was in her vocabulary. Making sure that she and her sister were safe was the only thing in this world that was of any importance to her at all. So, when a random girl came to her claiming to know who she and her sister were, brandishing the book that Amanda had always known was a threat to their secret, she knew it was time for her to be a protector once again, just like she’d always been.

She didn’t know what Casey was going to say; she didn’t know why she wanted to meet with them, but she knew one thing: she wouldn’t let this girl, or anyone, create a threat to the life she and her sister had worked so hard to achieve. They’d been mostly in the clear for two years now-since they’d turned eighteen. They were legal adults, and no one could bust them for living as unsupervised minors. But the threat of the Barracks was always looming: there were kids over eighteen living there when they were; who knew what would happen if someone discovered them?

She stood next to her sister now, feet away from the table where she’d left Casey hours ago. The girl didn’t see them; she bit at her nails and stared at her lap. Amanda breathed deep, and tried not to let her legs buckle underneath her. She had to be strong; she couldn’t let any of the fear she was feeling show. She could never let her fear show.

She felt her sister squeeze her hand, and looked over to see her offering a weak smile. She smiled back. Jess was the only person in this world that she’d ever been able to truly trust, and so being near her helped her to breathe more than anything else. With one final look, the girls took a deep breath and walked towards the table.

Casey, hearing their footsteps, looked up.

“This is my sister Jess,” Amanda said as they slid into the booth opposite Casey. Jess flashed Casey a weak smile.

The three girls stared at each other in silence for a few moments. No one knew what to say, or how to begin. Casey was terrified. Wonderings of what would happen next started to control her. What if no one actually believed any of this? She took a deep breath, reminding herself of why she was there, and pulled the Kingdom Keepers book out of her bag.

Without another word, she slammed it down on the table and slid it across to Amanda and Jess. Jess’ eyes grew wide, and the sisters looked at each other, seemingly scared.

“What’s this about?” Jess asked.

“Okay,” Casey said hesitantly. “This is gonna sound really crazy, but you have to hear me out.”

“Well,” Jess said. “We’ve had our fair share of crazy. You’d be surprised what we might believe.”

This caused Amanda to look sharply over to Jess, her eyes accusing, warning her to be cautious. Jess responded with a sigh. Sometimes, her sister was just _too_ cautious.

Casey, seeing all of this, and unsure of what was happening, sat with her hands folded tightly in her lap. This was tenser than any of her encounters today had been. She was about to speak up to explain when a new voice spoke.

“How are you girls doing?”

Casey looked up and saw a middle-aged woman with dark, auburn hair smiling at them. Immediately, Jess and Amanda’s demeanor changed entirely. Jess smiled brightly up at the woman and Amanda at least appeared less hostile.

“Great,” Jess said. “Thanks for letting us do this,”

“Oh it’s not a problem for my favorite employees,” the woman said.

“Don’t tell the others I said that,” she added with a whisper, earning laughter from Jess, and a light chuckle, perhaps even a smile, from Amanda.

Casey too, felt happier, and lighter. The woman’s presence had seemed to change everything. The pressure was off. She didn’t feel scared. For no explainable reason, it seemed for a moment like everything was okay.

“And who’s this nice young lady sittin’ with you?” the woman asked.

“This is…” Jess said, but then stopped, realizing they’d never been properly introduced.

“I’m Casey,” Casey finished, flashing the woman a smile. “I’m uh….doing a project, for my careers class at school. Amanda was my waitress last week and we hit it off and she agreed to let me interview her and Jess,”

Casey tried not to let the pride she was feeling at her successful lie show through. She bit her lip to diminish the size of her smile.

 “Well isn’t that lovely,” the woman said. “You girls are always doing things for others,”

“This is Wanda,” Jess finally explained. “She owns the place, and….she looks out for us,”

Jess smiled as she remembered meeting Wanda years ago. Not long after she and her sister had started out on the run, they’d ended up here in Orlando. On one of their first nights there, they’d come to Alcott’s to grab dinner, and Wanda had quickly noticed them and taken them under her wing. Growing up, they’d spent a lot of time in the restaurant, and Wanda would check up on them and make sure they were fed and clothed, and when they were old enough, she gave them jobs. Not once did she give them up. She was the closest thing to a mother that either of them had.

Wanda’s eyes shifted to Casey’s book, which was still sitting in the center of the table. Her eyes seemed to fix on it. Casey immediately sat up straighter, and her eyes grew wide with panic. Jess tried to communicate to her across the table to act natural, that nothing would seem weird about a book unless she made it weird, but Casey was already reaching across the table to rush to put the book away.

“I was just reading while I was waiting for Amanda and Jess,” she stuttered. “These are my favorite books so you know…”

She didn’t finish her sentence, but instead sunk into her seat and started biting her nails. Jess was about to lose her mind, but instead just flashed Wanda a big smile, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. They’d of course never told Wanda about their powers, or what they’d experienced in the Barracks. As far as she knew, they were two normal girls who’d run from an abusive group foster home.

Wanda, however, did not look as if everything were normal. Changing completely from the large smile she bore thirty seconds ago, she now looked serious, more serious than Jess was used to seeing her. She was focusing on Casey, and then Jess and Amanda, and there was something in the back of her eyes, something almost…dark.

“Excuse me girls,” she said suddenly, her eyes still unmoving. “I need to….take care of something in the back.”

With that, Wanda was gone, and quickly.

“That was weird right?” Amanda said, her question meant only for Jess.

Jess nodded slowly, her mouth in a straight line of fear. The sisters’ eyes locked, and they both understood instantly that they were thinking the same thing: something was definitely going on here, and it had to do with the girl sitting across from them.

* * *

 

             Minutes later, Amanda stared at Casey blankly across the table.

“I’m sorry, are you suggesting what I _think_ you’re suggesting?” Amanda asked harshly.

“I don’t know,” Casey said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. “What do you think I’m suggesting?”

She laughed, hoping the sisters would follow suit, but Amanda crossed her arms and squinted her eyes tight. What Amanda didn’t see was her sister next to her, who had barely moved since Casey had explained her theory.

“Look I don’t know who you are,” she said. “But we’ve been through enough. I really don’t appreciate people playing tricks on us,”

“Amanda,” Jess said seriously.

Amanda turned sharply to face Jess, and she found her sister looking at her softly.

“What?!” Amanda snapped.

Jess hesitated to say what she was going to next. She and Amanda didn’t keep anything from each other, and this was something she hadn’t told her before. She risked her sister getting even more upset, probably mad at her, and she didn’t want her sister to be mad at her. When you’re all each other has, you don’t want anything dividing you. But then she looked over to Casey, who was sitting on the edge of her seat, looking confused and scared. She sighed. She had no choice: with a random stranger pointing something like this out, she could no longer brush anything off into denial.

“I’ve been having dreams,” she finally admitted, speaking quietly so that no one else would hear them.

 “ _Dreams_?”

“I…”

“Dreams about what?”

“Amanda…”

“When were you planning on telling me this?”

“Look!” Jess shouted, cutting Amanda off. “All I’m saying is that this might not be as crazy as it seems.”

Amanda startled, and Jess sunk backwards into her seat as heads from surrounding tables turned towards them. Remembering that they were trying to lay low, Jess took a moment to collect herself before continuing.

“Look,” she whispered. “You and I have both known that something is up with these books since we first discovered them. Two foster sisters on the run from the system, one who can levitate and one who can dream the future? Give me a break! This could be our chance to finally get the answers we’ve always been looking for!”

“It could be a coincidence,” Amanda argued, clinging tight to the explanation they’d always told themselves mist me true.

“Not when someone else is noticing it too,” Jess said, talking about Casey. “Not anymore.”

Amanda sighed. She knew her sister, always more of an optimist than she was, was right. There was no denying that whoever had written those books knew about the fairlies, possibly even knew about the two of them. But for years and years they’d denied it, not wanting to throw themselves into the line of danger unless it came looking directly for them.

Now though, it seemed like the time had finally come that that danger _had_ come for them. Now they had to face this thing. The sisters exchanged an understanding look. The severity in their eyes spoke what they both knew to be true: they had no choice but to get involved.

Amanda exhaled before turning back to Casey.

“So what do we need to do next?” she asked.

Casey smiled brightly, and nearly jumped from her chair.

“I’ve asked all the others to meet me at the Earl of Sandwich in Disney Springs at 5 o’clock,” she said. “Can you do that?”

“We’re working,” Amanda said straightly.

“Wanda will adjust our schedules,” Jess said, brushing her off. “And besides, we have vacation time.”

“Fine,” Amanda said reluctantly. “Why don’t you meet us in the lobby around 4:30 tomorrow, and we’ll all go together,”

“Great!” Casey said.

Amanda nodded, and without another word, she got up and walked away from the table. Jess watched her go before turning back to Casey.

“Don’t worry about her,” she whispered, leaning in towards the young girl. “She’ll come around.”

Casey smiled weakly, and Jess took another second to give her a sympathetic look before following her sister towards the exit.

Casey bit her lip so as not to shout out. She had actually done it: she’d found everyone, and managed to get them all to agree to go to one place.

She took a deep breath; now all that was left to do was to find a way to get them to believe her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of what Amanda and Jess have become without the Keepers? And what could the appearance of Wanda mean? See you Sunday, when it's time for everyone to meet. What will happen when they do? You'll have to wait to find out! Thanks for reading Keepers, and I hope you enjoyed! Anything and everything is appreciated :)


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Keepers! I'm so sorry this chapter is so late! It's after 11:30 here, and it might be Monday by the time you're reading this. I didn't want to be behind on updates this early, but I was just super busy today! Anyway, I'm super excited for you all to read this chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Finn walked through Disney Springs quietly, lost in thought. The place was, as usual, teeming with people. Since Disney had updated the shopping center, it drew even more vacation crowds than usual, and it was, as always, a favorite of locals. Combine that with the fact that it was a Saturday, dinner time, and the start of the summer season, and the marketplace was completely crowded and deafeningly loud. Finn however, didn’t notice any of it.

All he currently sensed or knew was that he was walking to the Earl of Sandwich, because that’s where Casey had told him to go. It was like he was in his own bubble, and nothing else around him existed, only his own mind. Why was he even doing this? What was she going to say? Were other people going to show up? What were they going to think about the situation? What were they going to think about him?

Finn was so deep into this bubble that he didn’t even notice he was in it, until it was broken.

“Excuse me!” a voice said, as a hand tapped him on the shoulder.

Startling, he jumped up in the air and turned to see a girl cringing. She was short, with curly, dark, brown hair, and she looked to be around his age, maybe a bit younger.

“Sorry!” she said, noticing how his breathing had hastened. “I didn’t mean to scare you, and I don’t mean to bother you either, it’s just, you look like you live here and that you know where you’re going. I mean, I live here too, and I would normally know where I’m going, but I haven’t been here in forever and….”

“Hold on,” Finn said, cutting off the girl, who’d quickly started to ramble.           

“What?” she asked.

“How do I look like I live here?”

“What?”

“I’m just curious. You said I look like I live here. How’d you figure that out?”

“Oh,” she said, a hint of hesitation in her voice. “Well, you’re not in any kind of Disney clothes, and people who are on vacation here usually are. You’re not carrying any bags, meaning you didn’t bring a lot here and you didn’t go shopping either. Plus, you’re by yourself, and people on vacation would normally be with family.”

“Wow,” Finn said. “Impressive.”

“Thanks.” She didn’t seem eager to chat.

“Anyway,” the girl continued. “Do you know how to get to the Earl of Sandwich? I thought for sure I knew where it was, but…”

“Stop!” Finn interrupted, before she could head into another rant. “I’m going there too. I’ll walk with you.”

The girl smiled shyly.

“Okay,” she said.

They turned, and continued to walk in silence. Finn put his hands into his pockets. He thought he should say something, but somehow, all ideas for small talk escaped from him.

 _Come on_ , Finn he thought. _Say something!_

His friend Dillard liked to tease him that he clammed up around girls. He always denied it, but he wasn’t currently doing a very good job of proving him wrong. He wanted to punch himself. This was getting ridiculous. She was just a random person, and his silence was feeling increasingly rude with each passing second.

“So,” he finally said, like the words had pushed themselves out of him. “What are you doing at _Earl of Sandwich_?”

 _Stupid question_ he thought. _It’s a Sandwich shop, stupid. What else would she be doing?_

“I’m actually meeting someone,” the girl replied. “I was freaking out cause I was supposed to be there like, 5 minutes ago, but I couldn’t find the place for the life of me.”

“That’s weird,” Finn said. “Me too.”

The two stopped walking and looked at each other questioningly.

“Wait,” the girl stuttered. “Are you...”

“Casey?” Finn said, finishing her question.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank God I’m not the only one who showed up,” she said. “I was beginning to think that I was crazy for even considering it.”

“Oh believe me you’re not alone there,” Finn said.

The two laughed nervously, and suddenly, the tension between them started to dissolve. For some reason, Finn felt more comfortable to be around her now, like some kind of nervous air had released.

“I’m Willa by the way,” the girl said, as they continued to walk.

“Finn.”

“So, who does she think…”

“Which Kingdom Keeper am I?” Finn replied. Both laughed. It sounded so stupid to say out loud.

“According to Casey, I’m Liam Kane,”

“Oh thank god,” Willa said, then stopped herself as she realized her outburst.

“Glad I’m not someone else?” Finn asked.

“Sorry,” Willa said. “I mean, you seem nice and all it’s just…you’re not exactly my type.”

“Understandable,” Finn replied. “And I guess it would be awkward to suddenly be standing next to your _true love_.”

Finn and Willa shared a laugh again.

“So then I take it you’re not…” Finn started.

“Olivia?” Willa asked. “No; Casey thinks that I’m Sophia.”

“I can see it,” Finn teased.

Willa laughed and rolled her eyes, when they finally arrived at _Earl of Sandwich_.

They looked around the crowded restaurant. Scanning the tightly packed food lines and tables, it quickly became clear that Casey was nowhere to be found.

“Should we just get a table and wait?” Finn said, beginning to fear that maybe this whole thing was one giant prank that he’d somehow let himself fall for.

“Oh my God,” Willa exclaimed.

Her hand reached out to grab Finn’s wrist. He looked down to notice, but for some reason it didn’t strike him as odd.

Willa felt her face turning bright red, and she suddenly found it increasingly harder to breathe regularly. She wasn’t sure which urge was stronger: the urge to turn and run out of there, or the urge to run to the bathroom and promptly vomit.

“What is it?” Finn asked,

“I used to go to high-school with that guy,” Willa said, swallowing her words.

Finn followed her gaze to a nearby table. She pointed to a guy sitting on the far end of it, with pale skin and bright red hair.

Suddenly realizing what she had done earlier, Willa let go of Finn, pulling away from him and crossing her arms tightly against her chest.

“What is he an ex or something?” Finn asked, wondering why Willa was so quickly unnerved.

“What?! No!” she exclaimed, a bit too quickly, and coiled further into herself, pushing her hair behind her ear.

“ _Oooh_ I get it:” Finn teased. “Long lost crush who never knew you existed.”

“No, shut up!” Willa shot back. She was more brash than she appeared to be when they first met, and Finn didn’t think it wise to continue to challenge her.

“Look, I tried to put high school behind me the minute after they handed me the diploma,” Willa continued, backing off from her defensiveness slightly. “I don’t relish seeing people from my past.”

“Well I got news for you,” Finn said, having been studying the table in question for their entire conversation. “Looks like you’re doing more than just _seeing_ him; I think we found where we need to be.”

Willa looked dumbfounded, and was about to ask Finn what he meant, when he indicated for her to look at the table again. Sitting there were three people their age: Willa’s classmate, a tall blonde girl, and an African American guy. Unlike every other group in the restaurant, they weren’t saying a word to each other, and they weren’t on their phones either. They each were looking either at their laps, or out into space, and the one thing they had in common was that they all looked as nervous as both Finn and Willa felt.

“They look like…” Willa started.

“Yup,” Finn said, finishing her thought. “Meet the Kingdom Keepers.”

Willa and Finn looked to each other. Somehow, without realizing it, or being able to explain why, they’d become a team. Their eyes met, and they nodded at each other, sending a silent message.

_We can do this_

Then, without hesitating another second, they walked to the table.

“Hi!” Finn said.

The others looked up, and the redhead’s eyes widened.

“Willa!” he exclaimed, rising sharply from his seat, and tripping over the chair as he did. “Hey,”

“Hi Dell,” she replied shyly.

“It’s uh…it’s good to see you.” Dell stuttered.

“You too,”

Willa smiled weakly, but quickly looked away, and not long after Dell did the same, returning slowly to his seat. Finn looked between the two of them and raised an eyebrow, thinking of the conversation he’d had with Willa a few minutes ago.

 _She’s got to be kidding me_ he thought.

Deciding to stay out of business that wasn’t his own, Finn turned to the other two at the table, who had remained silent since he and Willa had walked up to the group.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m Finn.”

“Charlie,” the girl replied, smiling brightly.

“Terry,” the guy said, barely looking up and giving only a slight head nod as acknowledgement.

“So,” Dell said. “I guess you both got roped into this too,”

“You could say that,” Finn joked.

A lighthearted air came over the table for a moment, but it soon disappeared in favor of the return of awkward silence. The table now looked and sounded just as it had before, with the only difference being that Finn and Willa were now a part of it.

What felt like minutes of silence went by until someone finally spoke again.

“Can someone tell me what exactly we’re doing here?” Charlie snapped. “I mean it’s a quarter after five and this girl is nowhere to be seen.”

“It’s lookin’ a lot like we got played,” Terry added. Charlie crossed her arms and nodded to agree with him.

“I hate to say it, but they might be right,” Willa said. “All of this was off to begin with, and it was probably stupid of me to come in the first place. I don’t wanna wait around here forever like an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot,” Dell said softly, thinking only he could hear it. He was wrong however, and Willa gave him an odd look. Finn felt uncomfortable.

“Well whatever,” Charlie said. “It was nice meeting you all, but I’ve got better things to do. I’m out of here,”

Charlie got up to leave, and Terry and Willa started to follow. Finn watched them go and couldn’t help but feel like he should be calling out to stop them. This was a fact he couldn’t understand. Why should he be trying to stop them? They were right, and he felt it as much as they did: this was nuts. All logic dictated that he should not be there right now. But it was like something was tugging at him, shouting from inside, that they were not supposed to leave. Some tiny little voice deep down inside of him was saying that the five of them were supposed to be there together tonight. He was about to say something, when Dell beat him to the punch.

“Hold on a minute!” he called from behind, causing the four others to turn to him.

“You all came here for a reason tonight,” he continued. “And I don’t know if you know exactly what that reason is, because I’m not exactly sure why I came either, but you all came. This is the craziest thing I bet any of us has ever heard, and yet here we are: that has to mean something doesn’t it? Don’t we owe ourselves as much just to see this through, at least for tonight?”

Before anyone could say anything else, a voice that was familiar to all of them sounded from behind their backs.

“Hey everyone!”

They all turned to see Casey, along with two other girls they didn’t recognize standing in front of the table. Casey was practically on her toes, and smiled so big it looked like her face was going to tear in half.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “My Mom was super chatty today. It took me _forever_ to get out of my house. Anyway, has everyone met? How’s it all going? Oh this is so exciting!”

Casey was bouncing up and down, and probably still rambling, but Finn didn’t hear any of it. Without trying to, he’d found himself staring at one of the girls that had come with Casey. She had dark tan skin, thin eyes, long brown hair so dark it was almost black, and freckles dotting the bridge of her nose and the apples of her cheeks. Her eyes were a deep brown with tiny golden flecks in them, and it was those eyes that he was locked in on now. He didn’t mean to stare; he knew it was rude. But something about her caught his attention, and not in the way any other girl did. This wasn’t an attraction, exactly; this was something else. Like something deep within him was pulling him to her, like he….like they….

“Sorry,” he stuttered, though he could tell now that she was staring at him too. “It’s just….have we met before?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m sure we haven’t, but it feels like…”

“Yeah,” Finn said.

Amanda could barely speak. Her mouth had gone dry, and it was like everything was silent. She felt the entire weight of her body holding itself to the ground, and for the first time that she could remember, it felt like she had to _choose_ to not start floating. Something inside of her had ignited when she’d met eyes with this boy, like suddenly…she didn’t have to wear any kind of mask; she could be free. But even stranger, there was something more. There was something…why did she feel like this moment should be making her cry?

All of the eyes in the room were on them then, most especially Jess, who watched on with wide eyes and a raised eyebrow. She knew how to read her sister perfectly, and yet this was a side of her that she’d never seen before. Still though, she could read what was happening, enough to have to hold back a sheepish grin; her cynical sister was going all head-over-heels.

Casey did her best to remain silent as she watched everything unfold. A squeal fought to escape from her vocal chords: so far, everything was going _better_ than according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LET THE ANGST BEGIN *evil laugh* Seriously though, I hope you guys enjoyed! I had so much fun playing with the different dynamics here, especially Willa and Finn's! And what's going on with Finn and Amanda? Hmmm... See you guys Thursday as the adventure continues! Thanks for your love and support, and hope you're enjoying!


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Keepers! Today's chapter is a continuation of the last, and it's time for some stuff to go DOWN. I hope you enjoy!

Casey was not exactly right about everything going perfectly. It didn’t even take five minutes for her to discover that her plan was facing quite a few hiccups. Even though everyone had agreed to meet her here this afternoon, no one seemed particularly open to the idea that what she was saying was true. Ten minutes had passed since she’d gotten there, and other than recounting what she’d already told each one of them, practically nothing had been said. The table was filled only with crossed arms and awkward silences. She looked to Amanda and Jess to back her up, but both girls practically folded into themselves, with Amanda’s gaze continuously flitting back and forth between Finn and the table.

Casey sighed. The situation was beginning to feel hopeless.

“So Casey, what exactly makes you think that we’re all Kingdom Keepers?”

It was Dell who’d spoken up first.

Casey flashed him a weak smile and breathed a sigh of relief; finally she didn’t feel as if she was completely alone.

“Well…” Casey started, her voice stuttering. “I was on Small World at Magic Kingdom, probably about a month ago and I swear…”

“ _Oh God_ ,” Terry sighed, before Casey could even finish.

“I saw a doll move!” Casey insisted, not making eye contact with anyone, for fear of what she might see.

“ _Christ_ , really?” Terry shouted, even more emphatically than before.

“What?” Willa asked, slightly snarkily. She wasn’t happy to hear anyone treated the way Terry was treating Casey.

“Do you know how many people have claimed to have seen a doll move since those damn books came out?” Terry continued. “Are we really gonna take serious advice from a kid who’s trying to live out her middle school fantasy?” He addressed the other “Keepers” with this last statement.

“That’s just the thing,” Casey said, trying her best to focus on her belief in the Keepers, rather than on the fear from what Terry was saying.

“It’s not just me,” she insisted. “Since these books came out, _tons_ of people have seen a doll move, and the number of reports has grown over the years. How could that many people be wrong? Why would that many people lie?”

“I don’t think you’re lying,” Terry said, now leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed. “I just think you’re batshit and that you’re seeing things you want to be true,”

“Hey!” Willa snapped, seeing the shock on Casey’s face. “Watch it,”

She glared at Terry, unrelenting, until he backed down. She quickly realized that all the eyes at the table were now on her, and sunk back into her seat, crossing her arms.

 _Where did that come from?_ she thought.

“Okay, look,” Charlie said, sitting upright and speaking for the first time since Casey had arrived. “Even if you had seen a doll move, even if everything in the books was true, why on Earth would that mean that we were actually the Kingdom Keepers? Terry’s right, it’s completely crazy!”

“Actually,” a voice piped quietly. “It’s…not that crazy,”

All eyes turned to Dell, who hadn’t made a peep since his last comment.

“It’s not crazy,” he repeated, sitting up straighter, an air of confidence coming over him. “At least, not in the sense that you’re thinking of the word. I mean, scientists have been raising theories about the existence of parallel universes for years.”

“Right!” Casey added excitedly. “And all those conspiracy theories about things changing….like that business with the Berenstain Bears.”

“The Mandela effect: exactly,” Dell said.

They exchanged smiles, and Casey seemed to melt slightly, before Dell brought his focus back to the rest of the group.

“Look, I’m not saying that any of this is true, not even that it’s _likely_ true,” he continued. “No one’s ever gotten very close to proving anything about these theories. All I’m saying is that, backed by other evidence of course, it is feasible to say that we could be in a parallel universe.”

“ _Listen_ to yourself man,” Terry snapped. “Do you hear what you’re suggesting?”

“I’m sorry,” Dell shot back, “Who’s done research on this stuff: me or you?”

The boys broke into a fit of more bickering, with Charlie occasionally interjecting her point and Willa just trying, and failing, to keep the peace.

Finn felt like he should do something. Like before, he knew that all of this felt wrong, but he didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what he _could_ say without overstepping his boundaries. He couldn’t count on Dell to call everyone to order again; he was too busy fighting with Terry. Casey just looked absolutely terrified. He turned to the girls who had come with her, who had introduced themselves as Amanda and Jess, but they were quiet, not making eye contact with anyone, just as they’d been the entire time.

He then realized that silence had filled the room again, a pattern that seemed to be becoming too common. The small argument had made things even more awkward than they already were, and for a moment it was beginning to seem like the evening would be over entirely. Finn looked over to Casey again, who was now visibly upset, and visibly trying to hide it. He thought about why he’d come here in the first place, and how he’d felt once he did. Mustering his courage, he took a deep breath, and spoke up to everyone for the first time that day.

“Okay,” he started. “I think we need to stop this for now. We all need a break, time to process. But, if you all wanna talk about this again, or if you just wanna hang out and watch Netflix or something, you’re all welcome at my place tonight. Say…10?”

“I’ll be there,” Dell said, after a moment. The boys nodded at each other, like they were acknowledging something.

Finn shared his address, and others put it into their phones.

“I can’t,” Casey said. “I have a curfew, but I’ll keep in touch?”

“I’ll let you know what happens.” Finn said. She smiled at him, and he felt a strange sense of pride.

“Well then,” Terry said.

Without finishing his thought, he was the first to get up from the table and leave, and the others immediately followed suit. Dell gave Finn a wave before picking up the messenger bag by his feet and walking out the front door. Charlie and Terry were practically gone before Finn could notice them leaving.

The remaining members of the group had slowly found their way outside of the restaurant and were now standing awkwardly, playing the waiting game of who was going to say something first.

“So,” Finn said, lightheartedly, turning to Willa. “I didn’t hear you talk much during this thing. Maybe I’ll hear more from you later?”

He said it as a question, but he meant it as a plea. Not so much a plea to Willa, as a plea to fate. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he knew Willa was the first seemingly real friend he’d made in a long time. With all this confusion, all he could hope for was the kind of friendly face that made him comfortable.

Willa held her arm in her other hand, and she looked as scared and shy as she had when they’d first met, if not more so.

“Look Finn,” she said, holding back. “You seem really nice, and I like you, I do, maybe we could grab lunch sometime or something…but I can’t do this.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “Like you just can’t come to my place or…”

“No I just…I can’t,” she said, and without another word, she was shuffling quickly out the door.

Confused and, strangely, even upset, Finn found himself feeling lost in the middle of the marketplace hub. Before he could think about his next move, Jess approached him, Amanda in tow, looking increasingly like she didn’t want to be there.

“I guess we’ll see you tonight…Finn,” Jess said. The greeting was awkward, but an attempt at pleasant, and Finn’s face brightened.

“You’re coming?!” he asked excitedly. His eyes looked over Jess’ shoulder to Amanda, and he found excitement suddenly coursing through him.

“Well, it’s rare we have a free night: might as well take advantage of it,” Jess joked, laughing to hide the fact that she was hiding the real reason that she and her sister would be at Finn’s house that night: that they knew more than any of the others that Casey’s theories really could be true.

“I’ll see you then,” Finn said.

The two nodded at each other, before Amanda and Jess started on their way out. As she passed him, Finn couldn’t hold back anymore; he called out to Amanda to stop her.

“Are you sure we haven’t met before?” he asked.

Amanda looked up at him and their eyes locked again. And then there was that feeling again, the gut calling out and pulling and feeling things that couldn’t be explained. Confusing Finn entirely, and yet intriguing him at the same time was the fact that Amanda looked even more familiar than she did before. He couldn’t ignore it, no matter how little sense it made: something about this girl drew him in, like he’d never been drawn into anything before.

After the encounter in Earl of Sandwich, Amanda had tried her very hardest not to look at Finn, though it was a lot harder than she’d wanted it to be; something about him made her mind race with a million questions, and she’d learned at a very early age that asking questions was not the way to survive. Anything that pushed her away from surviving was something that she ran from, but, once she started looking at him, she found herself not wanting to run. So she’d made a point of not looking at him, but now she was, and it was like she couldn’t stop. And the questions were coming faster than she could figure out what they were.

Behind them, the doors to _Once Upon a Toy_ stood open, and the music from inside the store could be heard streaming lightly out onto the sidewalk.

_I know you I walked with you once upon a dream_

“Well,” Jess said, grabbing her sister’s hand and forcibly breaking whatever was happening here, “We better get going; we’ll see you later Finn.”

“See you later,” Finn replied, but it was said at half a whisper, because his expression had turned to a melty smile. Amanda did the same, and they continued to look at each other for a little while as she and Jess walked away.

_But if I know you, I know what you’ll do, you’ll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MUAHAHA.So what IS going on with Finn and Amanda? What's gonna happen next? See you Sunday when the adventures will continue ;)


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Today's chapter should be fun. Hope you enjoy!

Finn walked into the kitchen to find his mother washing the dishes from dinner that night. Finn approached her sheepishly and placed more plates into the sink-he’d eaten in his room, which was typical of him since starting college. She flashed him a smile, but he could hear the quiet sigh as she turned back around.

“So uh, I’m gonna have some friends over in a little bit,” he said. “If that’s okay,”

“This late Finn?” his mother asked.

“We’re just hanging out,” he insisted. “We’ll stay in my room and we won’t be loud,”

His mother sighed.

“Who is it that’s coming?” she asked. “Dillard?”

“No, not Dill,” Finn sighed, using his best friend’s nickname.

“Who’s coming over if Dill’s not coming over?”

Finn turned to see that his little sister was sitting at the kitchen island, looking up from her phone to glare at him.

“I didn’t think you had any other friends,” she teased.

“Shut up, Katie!” he snapped. Her favorite activity had always been pissing him off.

“Hey,” his mother yelled. “Don’t talk to your sister like that!”

“Or is it Sally?” Katie continued. “ _God_ , I always thought it was bad enough dealing with you and Dillard every day, until _Sally_ was coming around all the time,”

Finn lunged from the counter, but Mrs. Whitman put up a hand to stop him.

“Katherine,” she snapped. “Why don’t you go tidy up your room a bit?”

Katie sighed, but hopped of the chair and chewed her gum loudly as she walked past Finn.

“Don’t keep me up,” she teased. “I’ve gotta get my beauty sleep before Prom,”

“Just go do your chores,” Finn snapped.

She made a motion to lunge at him before he stuck out his tongue, and she went on her way, snickering.

“So…..we’re cool?” Finn asked, turning to his Mom.

“I don’t know Finn, I don’t know anything about them.”

“They’re just some people from school,” Finn lied, knowing his Mother wouldn’t be too keen on the idea of him hanging out with some random people he met at Disney Springs.

“What are their names?”

“Why does that matter Mom?” Finn sighed.

“Well excuse me if I want to know something about the people my son is inviting into my home,”

Finn sighed and went to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

“Look Finn, I’m not trying to be pushy,” his mother sighed, “I’m just…it’s good to see you branching out your social circles,”

“Mom _please_ ,” Finn sighed. He hated when his Mother went all philosophical on him. She liked to do it rather often.

“I’m just saying, you know I love Dillard, but it’s good for you to have more than one friend,”

Finn clenched his eyes shut, not wanting to get into yet another argument about how his life was fine, and he was happy, and he didn’t need more friends than Dillard, when the doorbell sounded from their front hallway.

 _Saved by the bell_ he thought.

He walked to the door and opened it to reveal Jess and Amanda. His face lit up. Out of everyone he’d met today, it was them that he’d been looking forward to seeing again the most.

“Hey!” Jess said, greeting him with a bright smile.

“Hi!” Finn replied. “I’m so glad you guys could come,”

He looked to Amanda, standing slightly behind Jess, and offered her a shy wave. She did the same, and awkward smiles came across both their faces before the moment was broken by the voice of Mrs. Whitman, who Finn hadn’t even realized was behind him.

“Oh Finn, these must be your friends!” Her voice sounded decidedly more upbeat than before.

 _Of course_ Finn thought. _The only thing she’s more obsessed with than me making more friends: me meeting a girl_

“It’s nice to meet you Mrs….” Jess started, before realizing she didn’t know Finn’s last name.

“Whitman,” Mrs. Whitman said. “But please, feel free to call me Alice!”

Finn could feel himself turning bright red. While Jess continued to chat awkwardly with Mrs. Whitman, Amanda tried to hide a giggle. Finn saw this and raised his eyebrows at her, which only caused her to laugh more. The moment was broken by the appearance of Dell walking up the path.

“Hey!” he said, raising his hand slightly.

Finn knew he should’ve been grateful that more people were showing up to this meeting, but he felt a twinge of upset that Dell was ruining a chance at alone time with Amanda…and Jess.

“Oh!” Mrs. Whitman chimed. “Another friend! How lovely!”

“Alright!” Finn shouted, putting himself back in control of the evening. “We’re gonna go to my room! I’ll talk to you later Mom,”

Finn led the others inside and towards the staircase that lead to the second floor and his bedroom.

“Have fun!” Mrs. Whitman called to them. “I’ll put some slice-and-bake cookies in the oven and bring them up in a bit!”

Finn rolled his eyes as he made his way up the stairs. This was going to be a long night.

Alice Whitman watched her son and his friends walk up the stairs and let out a breath as her husband came to stand next to her.

“When did he start being embarrassed by me?” she asked. “What happened to the little boy running home from school wanting to tell me all about his day?”

“He grew up,” Donald Whitman said, putting his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Happens to the best of us,”

* * *

 

            A little while later, Finn sat in his room with Amanda, Jess and Dell. Though they’d now gone through as much small talk as they could, the night had been pleasant so far; Finn might even call it fun. His Mom had brought up chips and soda for them while the cookies were baking and he had to admit, he really did like hanging out with this group.

“So,” Finn said, taking a sip of his Coke and raising his eyebrows. “Who does Casey claim you all are in the Kingdom Keepers world?”

The others threw back their heads and laughed, save for Dell, who still looked completely serious.

“Why don’t you tell us first?” Jess said, cocking her head to the side to challenge him.

“Touché,” Finn replied.

“I’m Darren,” Philby said, oblivious to the banter. “Apparently,”

Finn nodded at him, and tried his best not to show his amusement after thinking about his conversations with Willa earlier that day.

_Oh, I get it: long lost crush who never knew you existed?_

_What? No! Shut up!_

“Well you’re clearly not Gary,” Jess teased, looking Finn up and down. “So I guess that makes you Liam; what a hotshot.”

“And you are?”

“Jamie Kendall,” Jess said proudly. “Or…so Casey says,”

“What about you?” Dell asked Amanda.

She’d gone quiet again, like she did in the restaurant that afternoon, staring at her lap and picking at her nails.

“Oh,” Dell said, glancing between her and Finn. “I get it:  you’re Olivia,”

Amanda seemed to sink even further into the floor, and Finn shied away from the group, hoping that the heat in his cheeks hadn’t presented itself as a blush. Jess glared angrily at Dell, who seemed lost, unaware of what he’d done.

“Awkward,” was all he managed before taking a drink.

“Look,” Jess said, mainly addressing Amanda. “Even if all of this is true, it doesn’t mean that we _are_ them, right? I mean it doesn’t mean that our lives are necessarily coded to be lived exactly how they are in the books.”

“I don’t even know how much of this I believe,” Finn answered. “And if I do believe it, I have no idea what it means,”

“Well that’s why we’re here isn’t it?” Dell added. “To figure all this out,”

“I don’t know why we’re here,” Finn said. “I just felt like it would be fun to have everyone over tonight because I…”

He couldn’t figure out how to finish the sentence.

“Maybe we don’t have to know anything right now,” Amanda offered. “Maybe....we don’t have to really think about what we believe until we’re given some concrete reason to believe something.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and before anyone could answer, Mrs. Whitman came into the room, practically bouncing, carrying a plate of chocolate chip cookies. The conversations ceased as she walked over to the group.

“Here you go kids,” she said, placing the plate of cookies in the center of them. “Can I get anybody anything? Milk, coffee, tea?”

“We’re fine Mom,” Finn said hardly, before anyone else could answer. Mrs. Whitman nodded then walked out of the room.

Finn, Amanda and Jess all immediately reached for a cookie at the same time. And then, their hands stopped, all three of them frozen in space. And suddenly it was like Finn was drowning in a memory, like it was playing out before him, but in broken snippets rushing by, things happening so fast that he couldn’t even tell what they were.

 _Flash_ ; he was sitting at his kitchen table. _Flash_ ; the cookies, there were the cookies and... _Flash_ ; he was hot, unexplainably hot, a sense of panic was filling him but he couldn’t place why he’d been panicking _Flash_ ; chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies in his kitchen and his Mom making them and _Flash_ ; someone else was there, people he didn’t know well….someone else…they were reaching for the cookies…

Everything stopped in an instant, and he was back in reality, unable to grasp onto a single thing that had just rushed through his mind. What was left though, was this strange feeling, a feeling he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt before. There was a…familiarity, distant and close at the same time, and it had come to him when he’d reached for the cookie.

He looked up and saw that Amanda and Jess’ eyes were both as wide as his, and the three of them were looking at each other now, shock and fear on all three faces. Dell looked back and forth between them, locked in and studying what was happening.

“Did you just…” Finn started.

“When we reached for the cookies,” Amanda continued. “It was like…the three of us,”

“Like it’s happened before,” Finn added.

“It was like deja-vu, but stronger,” Jess finished, before they fell into silence again and continued to stare at each other, unsure of what could possibly be going on. They all knew for certain that they’d never lived this moment before, not even anything close to it, and yet….

“Well,” Dell said. “I think we just found the _concrete reason_ to believe something,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AGH writing Finn being all distant from his family like that actually physically pained me! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! On Thursday, we'll start meeting the other keepers more in-depth, and I'm super excited to share the next chapter with you! Until then, thanks for all your love and support, and I hope you're enjoying the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it!


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! The angst is on today, so prepare yourself! I'm so excited to share this chapter with you for a lot of reasons, one of which is that it's the first chapter I wrote for the story! That being said, it was super painful to write, so you've been warned. Ready to meet Charlene? Then read on! Hope you enjoy!

For almost all of her twenty years, Charlene Turner’s life seemed to have been plucked straight from a movie. She’d grown up with a single Mom, who she considered her best friend, and she fit every stereotype of the girl who had it all: tall, fit, blonde, charismatic; she didn’t live through a single grade without being the most popular girl in school. In Elementary school she was friends with practically everyone, and when she hit middle and high school, she became friends with the other most popular girls in school, started going by Charlie, and was head cheerleader by her sophomore year. Her life was, for all those who looked onto it, entirely charmed.

Things had changed a bit since she’d gone to college. At first, everything went as she expected it to go. She entered USC as a Physical Education major with a place on the cheerleading squad and a scholarship for it. She made fast friends with most of the people in her dorm building, went to parties every weekend and drank herself silly. She lived the college life out of the movies that had always been promised to her.

Things changed when she came home for her first Winter break: her friends from high school had all but forgotten her, and she’d spent most of the vacation at home making crafts and watching _Gilmore Girls_ with her Mom. Taking a break from the glitz and glamour and partying, and being left behind by the people she’d spent her entire adolescence with had forced her to slow down and think, think about what she really had, and the things she’d done and said in high-school. It bothered her so much that she forced herself not to think about it too much.

After that break, she’d slowed down a bit. She spent more time studying or getting coffee with her teammates than partying when she returned to school. She called her Mom more often, took time for herself, and in general, tried to pay better attention to how she behaved and treated people. She spent her summers coaching a child’s cheerleading squad at the local rec center, and she loved every minute of it. She spent most of her free time with her mother, some of it with coworkers, some of it on the occasional Tinder-date. Things were different, and change was definitely hard, but, for the most part, things were still good; life was good.

With life being as good as it was, the last thing she had expected when she came out of work yesterday was to meet a girl who told her that she was a character from a book series. She expected even less to find herself following through on the girl’s theories and meeting a group of random strangers in Disney World, and even less to find out that one of those strangers was a boy who she went to high-school with. But even after all of that, what had been the least expected thing of all, was that she’d found herself deciding to try and reconnect with that boy from high-school.

She had no intentions of following through on Casey’s plans. She’d chalked it up as a crazy, random, experience, and decided to leave it to be a story she told when she was trying to make a cute guy laugh at a wedding. That didn’t mean, however, that she couldn’t reap some benefits from a crazy story. That lead her to where she was now.

She took a deep breath as she looked up at the sign above the store in front of her: _Crazy Glaze_. How she remembered how to get here, or that Terry Maybeck’s Aunt owned the shop, she had no idea-she hadn’t been there since the ninth grade-but she did, and so here she was. She started to turn back for a moment, because she really had _no idea_ why she was there, but then, just like when she decided to come here in the first place, she surged forward and opened the door, almost like she was guided by a force outside of herself.

The bell above the door rang, and she walked inside, confused when she saw no one there.

“Hello?” she called.

“One second!” a voice replied from a back room.

Charlie tapped her feet and looked around the room as she waited. The place was empty, but just like she remembered it-minus all the screaming kids: four long white tables sat to the right of the main desk, shelves of finished pottery standing behind it. Around the room, archways led to other similar rooms, and more shelves behind the desk were filled with slabs of clay and pre-made cartoon ceramic figures. As she started to walk towards one of them, a voice sounded from behind her.

“What are you doing here?”

She turned to see Terry, walking out of the back room, cleaning his hands with a towel. He wore a dirtied apron, and a bit of dried clay was streaked across his forehead.

“Oh,” Charlie replied, slightly startled.

Terry walked towards her and raised his eyebrows, awaiting a response. She stuttered, looking him up and down, and, for the first time in her life that she could remember, words didn’t seem to be travelling from her head to her mouth. Her stomach gave a little lurch, and she was still frozen when Terry broke the silence.

“What?” he asked. “Seeing me in my element not what you expected?”

“What?” Charlie asked, awoken from her stupor by confusion.

“Never mind,” Terry sighed.

A few moments of silence passed, Charlie looking down and running her fingers across the counter, until Terry spoke again.

“You going to that thing at that kid Finn’s house?” he asked.

“No,” Charlie said, chuckling slightly. “It’s crazy: you and I both know that.”

“You don’t have any idea what I know,” Terry said harshly.

A silence fell over them again. This was more awkward than Charlie had hoped it would be. She didn’t know why she’d expected anything other than this; they barely knew each other. Still, she’d come here for a reason, and so she took a deep breath

“Actually,” she said brightly, following him with a newfound skip in her step, “I came here to see if you wanted to go get coffee or something”

Her leg popped up behind her as she smiled and leaned forward on the counter, hoping to win a smile from Terry, who so far had only given her scowls.

“Why?” he asked.

“I mean…why not?” Charlie said nervously. “It could be fun: just be a nice night: hanging out with some new people, getting to know each other better…”

Charlie smiled brightly across the counter and Terry sighed, rubbing his temple. This was the last thing he needed to deal with right now.

Charlie sensed Terry’s frustration, but for some reason she refused to give up.

“Look,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Hanging out with _new people_ is not exactly my thing. If you haven’t noticed, people don’t generally tend to like me.”

“Well maybe you just haven’t met the right people,” Charlie said. “And besides, I’m not new per say. We went to high school together.” She grinned and sat down on a stool, causing him to roll his eyes.

 _When is she going to get the idea I don’t want her here_? He thought.

“Are people waiting to pick those up?” Charlie asked, pointing to a shelf of pottery behind him.

“No,” he said. “Those are mine. I like to put them out for decoration when we don’t have a lot of pieces being made.”

“You _made_ those?!” Charlie remarked.

“Yes,”

“Terry they’re _beautiful_!”

“What, surprised that the burnout kid from high school is good at something?”

Charlie stopped suddenly then, and crossed her arms, looking at him hardly. Up until now she’d just taken his cynicism as some kind of grumpiness, but now he was starting to make her angry. She tried to be nice, but even she had her limits.

“That’s not what I said,”

“Yeah well you didn’t have to,” he chided.

“What the hell is your problem?!” Charlie snapped, jumping off the stool and stepping back.

“What’s _my_ problem?” Terry yelled.

“Yes,”

“ _My_ problem?” Terry repeated.

“Yes! You’re acting like a complete asshole!”

Charlie could feel her cheeks beginning to burn red with anger, and she crossed her arms tightly, clenching her fists to stop herself from yelling any louder.

“You wanna know my problem Charlie?” Terry chided. “Even if I wanted to go out tonight, I couldn’t, because I can’t afford to close the store early! And I can’t leave my Aunt to run it, because she’s been so sick that she’s too tired to get out of bed most days, much less front a store. I run things around here, and I’m in charge of making sure that we don’t end up on the streets, so I don’t have time to go gallivanting around town, pretending to start a friendship that we both know is just some ploy for you to feel like you did your good deed for the day, or whatever it is that’s viral on some Facebook self-help page this month, but you wouldn’t know any of that, because you and your friends were always so stuck in your little perfect high-school bubble that you couldn’t see anyone who lived outside it!”

Everything stopped then, and both their stances softened. Terry suddenly wished he hadn’t yelled, but knew it was too late to take anything back, and he felt his gut twist as he saw the tears building in Charlie’s eyes, and her arms slowly loosening until they hung by her side.

“You know,” she said, her voice wavering ever so slightly. “You talk such a big game, accusing people of everything, acting like the whole world is against you, but you don’t see what an idiot you’re being.”

Charlie used all her strength to not let her building tears fall from her eyes.

“I know I wasn’t the best person in high-school, and my friends treated people who were different than us like shit, and I should’ve done something about it, but I didn’t, and it sucks, and I hate that it happened, but you can’t just hold that to me forever.

“I came here tonight because I was trying to be _nice_ , to be a better person. I thought the fact that our paths just happened to cross again was a sign that I should make amends for the fact that I never got to know you while we were growing up, that maybe we were supposed to be friends. And I came because I really did genuinely think that we could have a nice time together!

“I _know_ I was a bitch in high school, and I know we never got along, but you _cannot_ place all the blame on me.”

Terry stared at her softly from the other side of the counter, their eyes locked on each other without moving.

“I wanted to be your friend,” Charlie continued. “When we were in ninth grade. I thought you seemed sweet, and that you were funny in class…and cute too. And I tried to talk to you a bunch of times, but you always just blew me off because you were doing to me what you always accused everyone else of doing to you.

“You’re right Terry: I don’t know anything about your life, but you don’t know anything about mine either, so don’t just assume things. True we’ve never been friends, but it’s _you_ who wanted nothing to do with _me_ , not the other way around, so maybe drop the God complex once in a while, and take a look in the mirror.”

“Charlene,” Terry started, feeling two inches tall, but before he could get another word out, she’d turned on her heel and rushed out the door.

The door closed and he slammed the towel he was holding down in frustration. He braced himself against the counter with his hands, trying not to let his own emotions out.

Charlie got out of the store, leaned against the building’s wall and finally let herself burst into tears, all kinds of hurts rising to the surface all at once. She felt a sharp pain deep in her stomach, and it had nothing to do with anything being physically wrong with her. Her cheeks were hot, and her eyes were burning: she was a mess; she never let herself get this way, and never let anyone see her if she did, not even her mother. And yet now, here it was, all at once, tears and cries that she could no longer push away.

All at once everything had become so painfully real, feelings that she’d tried to ignore for years now: no matter how much she denied it, she’d grown up to be the person that she never wanted to be. She was nothing like she thought she was: sweet, a friend to everyone….those were all lies she’d constructed to make sure she liked herself; none of it had ever been true, at least not for a while. She hated it; she hated it, and she wanted nothing more than to make it right.

Now though, it was starting to seem like some things were too late to make right. Some people would never change the way that they saw her. And somehow, though she couldn’t explain it, learning that from Terry Maybeck hurt more than she knew any other way could. Hearing him say the things he did twisted her gut like she’d just found out her world was falling apart. And that just bothered her even more, because it didn’t make sense: she barely knew him; why should he have that much power to hurt her?

She stopped for a moment then and looked up, a realization coming to her. Wiping her tears, she got in her car, forcibly put the key into the ignition and drove away. There was no tiptoeing around it anymore: if she really wanted to change her life, she was going to need to take some big steps to do so.

* * *

 

            Finn was in the middle of a conversation with Dell, Jess and Amanda, things having grown tenser since his mother had brought out the cookies. They were interrupted by his Mom calling from down stairs.

“Finn! Someone else is here to see you!”

Half scared and half excited to see who else might have come, he walked down the stairs and saw Charlie, standing up straight next to his mother in his front hallway, a serious look on her face.

“I don’t know why I’m here,” she said, quietly, so only he could hear, her voice shaking slightly. “I wasn’t even gonna come, but I just…”

“We’ve got a lot of that going on around here,” Finn said gently. He stepped to the side and motioned up the stairs to welcome her in.

“Come on,” he said. “My Mom made chocolate chip cookies,”

Charlie smiled weakly at him as she followed his direction, and the two of them made their way to his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one joins the team, but what will come of Charlene and Maybeck?! This dynamic was probably the one I had the most fun exploring in this world, and it was a driving factor of the whole story! Who do you think we'll meet next? Thanks for all your continued love and support, and I hope you enjoyed! See you Sunday!


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah...I very nearly cried writing this. Today we continue to meet the Keepers and well...I am very sorry to everyone reading this and to Dell Philby himself. Enjoy chapter 8!

Dell Philby had never much understood other people, and by that token, no one else much understood him. He just didn’t get it; he didn’t get the desire to go out, to have as many friends as possible, to be loud in public, to watch reality TV. Everything else that everyone else in the world seemed to do and want and accept as normal…weren’t appealing to him at all.

His parents nagged him constantly to get out of the house, to get a job, to meet new people, but they didn’t understand that he didn’t need any of that to be happy. All he wanted was to be alone to do research, or try out new technologies. Of course, to his parents, and everyone else, these things apparently indicated that there was something wrong with him. But he’d never understood that either: he’d just never felt the need to be all that social; what was wrong with that?

It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy any “normal teenager” things, or that the idea of them was unappealing, he just didn’t seek them out. The opportunities had never presented themselves, and he was happy the way he was, so he saw no reason to risk potential discomfort to gain something that he didn’t feel he was missing. He had a best friend, Hugo, who he saw plenty often, and he had the things he loved: that was all he needed.

Things had started to feel different in the past year however. After they went to college, he and Hugo had faded apart, and they hadn’t seen each other in over a year. Now Dell really did spend all of his time alone. At first it wasn’t so bad, but lately…sometimes little things just made him think that maybe having something more might actually be nice: little things, like watching a group of friends on campus heading to the dining hall, or seeing a picture of Hugo on Instagram arm-in-arm and smiling with his girlfriend…or seeing Willa Angelo at _Earl of Sandwich_.

For all his lack of interest in others in high school, Willa Angelo was the only person he’d ever found himself wanting to understand. She’d had the locker across from his and every day, as he packed up his books after dismissal, he’d watched her doing the same. There was something about her that was just intriguing; he’d never thought about any girl, or _anyone_ , in any kind of way that even approached romantic…except for Willa.

They’d been in a lot of classes together; the way she answered teachers’ questions, the way she thought about the world just seemed so insightful and beautiful. To look at her…she made him understand what it meant to think that other people were pretty, and it was because she wasn’t pretty in the way people usually described it; she was a _Willa_ kind of pretty.  More than anything though, what made Willa the one person he’d ever wanted to understand was the fact that she seemed like the one person in the world who’d be able to understand him.

Willa had friends: he knew that; he watched them come up to her when she was at her locker, but at the same time, he could see the look on her face when they talked. He recognized that look; it was the look of feeling like a fish out of water, even when nothing was measurably wrong. After school sometimes, waiting for his Mom to pick him up, he’d see her sitting by a tree, all by herself, reading a book, and the tiniest smile was on her face. He recognized that look too: the look of finally being able to breathe.

And yet, though he was able to notice all these things about Willa- probably _because_ he was able to notice them- he never worked up the courage to go and ask her out, or even to just say hello, to try and get to know her better. She was the only thing that ever made him think that maybe he _did_ need more than his room and his laptop and a LEGO robot-making kit, but he always brushed the thoughts off, because the fear of what she might say to him was, like everything else, too great to sacrifice his comfort.

He’d gotten over her once he didn’t see her every day, and he’d gotten over her because he’d had to; they graduated. They went their separate ways, and he’d never known her well enough to justify asking her to keep in touch. But sometimes, on the nights when he was really thinking that he might finally be understanding loneliness, he would think of her for a moment or two, and he’d wonder what would’ve happened, what his life might be now, if he’d just walked across the hall and said hi.

Now of course, Willa Angelo had been thrown back into his life in a crazy, unexpected turn of events. He didn’t know if he believed this whole thing about him being a Kingdom Keeper, but he sure wanted to believe it. Not only was the idea of it being true incredibly fascinating, but when he was around the others, for some reason, he felt a slight tinge of that not wanting to be alone anymore. Something about this whole thing just made him know that he had to see it through. So, when it had been decided at Finn’s house two nights earlier that the first step to figuring all of this out was getting everyone on board, he’d agreed to go talk to Willa.

A quick look on Instagram and Facebook had revealed that she worked at _Marble Slab_ , a popular ice-cream shop in the suburban Orlando area. It was a favorite among middle and high-school students, the place where everyone would hang-out after classes. He’d been there with Hugo a few times, but hadn’t set foot inside in a few years. Now, facing the front door, he found his palms had grown rather sweaty.

 _Is this what you’re supposed to feel?_ He wondered. _Is this what most people feel when they’re around people they like, or is this just being nervous and I’m nervous when I’m not supposed to be? Are you supposed to be nervous? Even if you’re supposed to be is it weird that she still makes me nervous?_

It was after a few moments of mulling things over that he realized he’d been standing in front of the ice-cream parlor doors for a few minutes. The last thing he needed was to appear suspicious to passer-byes, so he took a deep breath, and walked in.

The place was practically empty, and Willa sat at the counter alone, reading a book. Dell smiled. _Just like high school_ he thought.

He didn’t say anything, but, hearing the door, she looked up. She looked surprised, and he offered her an awkward wave and a shy smile.

“Hey,” he said as she approached the counter.

 “Hey,” she said cheerily.

She was smiling, but an awkward tension was still clearly present between them.

“So…how’s it going?” he asked.

“I’m working,” she answered plainly. “It’s as good as it’s going to get I guess.”

“Right,” Dell said, nodding. “Not a lot of people in here right now, huh?”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon on a Monday,” she said. “School’s still in session,”

“Right,” Dell said again. His voice cracked slightly, and he put his hands in his pockets, pivoting away from the counter.

 Willa raised her eyebrows at him.

“Are you gonna order anything?” she asked, after a few more moments of silence had passed.

“Oh, right!” Dell stuttered. “It’s an icecream parlor! I should…order something…right….ordering…ordering’s good…and you’re gonna scoop the icecream for me!”

By now Willa was trying hard not to sigh. She was perfectly happy to acknowledge people that she’d been in school with, but she really wasn’t in the mood for ever “catching up”.

“I’ll have a small pistachio,” Dell finally said. “With gummy bears.”

Willa grabbed the ice-cream scoop, and went on with her work. Dell however, was not giving up.

“So…have you uh…have you ever been back to visit school since we graduated?” he asked, still stammering.

“No,” Willa said, not looking up at him now that she finally had a task to do.

“Have you seen any of the teachers around town?”

“No.”

“Working at Marble Slab: that must be fun. Do you…do you like it?”

Dell almost cringed, sensing himself how awkward the question was. He could tell that this was not going well. He was trying anything to get her engaged so that he could more easily talk about what was happening, but she was proving to show little to no interest in anything he said. He was beginning to remember why he’d never tried to talk to her in high-school.

Willa sighed and rolled her eyes before finally looking up at him again.

“I’m just working this job so that I can start saving up money so that I can move out of my parents’ house as soon as possible,” she replied.

Before Dell could say another word, she put the ice cream down on the counter and stuck it with a spoon.

“That’ll be 3.99” she said.

Dell looked at her for a moment before reaching into his pocket, paying her and taking the ice-cream. He nodded at her once more and she smiled before he turned to make his way out of the door. Thinking though, and remembering why he’d come, he turned back around.

“Hey, Willa…” he started. His felt his heart about to pound out of his chest, but he knew there was no stopping now.

“What?” she asked.

“Why didn’t you come back to Finn’s house the other night?”

Dell stared at her, and Willa, taken aback by the question, looked back with wide eyes for a few moments before stammering to find an answer for him.

“I…I just didn’t know any of you guys that well,” she said. “It didn’t seem right to go hang out.”

“Well none of us really knew each other that well. That was the point.”

Willa cursed herself silently inside. She should’ve realized that excuse wouldn’t have worked.

“I had work early the next morning,” she said, before trying to start wiping the counter.

“So did Finn,”

“I…”

“Willa,” Dell said, cutting off anything else she might say.

His tone of voice was so assured that she looked up without even deciding to, and in doing so she’d allowed their eyes to meet. Now they were locked in in a stare, and without either of them planning on it, they connected. Willa’s eyes softened, and when she spoke again it was at a half whisper.

“It’s crazy,” she said. Her voice sounded desperate, hopeless.

“But what if it isn’t?” Dell asked. “How cool would that be?!”

“That’s just the thing, Dell: _if_ it wasn’t crazy; it is: you and I both know that.”

“Willa…” he started.

“Look,” she said firmly, cutting him off. “I don’t have a lot of free time this summer, and the time I _do_ have I wanna spend with my friends, and getting ahead on some research for next semester. I don’t wanna waste my time chasing something that we both know won’t turn out to be true.”

They looked at each other a bit longer until Dell nodded solemnly. He turned around once again, and this time, when he got to the door, he didn’t stop. 

Willa watched him go quietly, and once the door was fully closed, she craned her neck to make sure that Dell was fully clear of the path. Once she was certain he wasn’t coming back, she exhaled, having been partially holding her breath since he’d gotten there. She leaned her hands against the counter and squinted her eyes before looking up to the ceiling and then running her hands through her hair, and holding back tears that she hadn’t asked for.

She thought after she walked out of Earl of Sandwich the other night she’d be able to avoid it, but now it was clear that she couldn’t: something wasn’t right here, and she was left wanting to ask the universe why Dell Philby had suddenly come back into her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im literally in pain just thinking about this chapter. I'm so sorry to all who were injured in the process. See you Thursday, though I can't promise that it will get any less painful any time soon. Thanks for reading, for your continued love and support as always, and hope you enjoyed! Stay magical Keepers! Bye!


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this is so late! I got caught up doing a bunch of other things today! Regardless, I hope you enjoy! Time to meet the next Keeper, and no I can't promise this one will be any less sad than the ones before it.

Willa Angelo did not like to think about high-school. High-school was a part of her past, and everything she did in life was meant to help her put her past behind her: choosing a school that was a 12 hour drive away from home; spending most of her summer vacation at a meaningless job so that she’d have the money to move out. Keeping herself tied to her past at all could only hurt her, and Willa’s main priority was to look out for herself.

Willa’s life had never been what others would consider easy. She was never popular in school, was bullied even, and her home life wasn’t much to celebrate either. With two older brothers who were both in college before she even started high-school, she’d spent a good amount of time living like an only child. Almost having lost her father in a car accident when she was ten, stressful was an understatement when it came to living in her house. Her mother had never learned to handle the grief of almost losing her father, or of watching him go through the medical issues that he still did on a daily basis. As a result of this, she was often angry and on-edge, completely different from the mother Willa had known as a little girl, and sometimes it felt like all they did was fight.

Things had only gotten worse as Willa got older. As she became her own person and searched for what she wanted in life, it felt like she only got more pushback from her parents. They were overprotective and critical, and while it was all done in the name of love, she found it entirely too hard to handle. When her brothers visited home they were no better. She loved her family, without question, but for years all she’d wanted was to break free and be on her own. Her greatest dream was to leave her past behind her, get out into the world on her own, and find out who she could be without anyone doing anything that might hold her back.

All of this was why Willa Angelo did not like to think about high-school. So, when her high school crush came bursting through the doors of the place where she worked, she immediately put her guard up. She couldn’t let herself get involved with him, as much as he made her want to; he was a part of high-school, and high-school was a part of her past. Nothing about talking to Dell Philby would help her move forward to the future. But yet, he was here, trying to drag her in to some ridiculous fantasy about a book being real.

She hated that he’d come to ask her about Finn’s house, because she hated that she hadn’t gone. She knew just as well as Dell did that what Casey was saying wasn’t crazy. But she needed it to be crazy, and so she told herself it was, because if it was crazy it gave her a reason to not get involved. Because if she got involved, it would spell disaster for everything she’d ever worked for.

That day, at _Earl of Sandwich_ , being around the others, being invited to Finn’s house that night, she’d immediately began to wonder if that’s what it would be like to have a group of friends like the groups of friends in the books she read, and the movies she watched: friends who she really felt cared about her, and who she liked being around. Talking to Finn for only five minutes had been so comfortable that she’d felt like he could be that kind of friend. Dell made her smile whenever he talked, and when she watched him at school she’d always thought that maybe there was someone out there who thought just like her. That level of comfort was exactly why she couldn’t go to Finn’s house that night.

If she had real friends like that, here in Orlando, then she’d have something to miss in Orlando. Orlando wasn’t supposed to be a place that she missed, wasn’t supposed to be a place she had any kind of connection to; it was just supposed to be a place to wait until she could finally move to DC year-round, and leave everything else behind.

Of course, being with the others that day, seeing Dell Philby again, had made her start to wonder for the first time if having friends to miss in Orlando would really be all that bad.

Her train of thought was finally stopped when a voice called out to her.

“Willa!”

She looked up, startled, and saw the group of girls she was with staring at her expectantly.

It was after her work hours, and Willa was in the Magic Kingdom with some of her old friends from high-school. She didn’t know why; they’d barely kept in touch since college, and they all, aside from her, had moved on to new groups of best friends. Besides, even in high-school, Willa never felt very wanted around them; she was just someone who sat at their lunch table. They never invited her to go anywhere with them, never called. But Kelly, a girl who needed to be as nice as possible to everyone to survive, would still invite her to sentimental summer get-togethers, and she never turned down an invitation. After all, she was comfortable enough around them, and they were people to do something with while she waited for the summer to be over.

“Hm?” she asked Kelly, the one who had called out to her.

“We’re going on Mine Train. We asked if you’re coming!”

“Oh,” Willa said. “Yeah! Let’s go.”

She shook her head and decided to put all thoughts of the past few days behind her. If she was truly going to stop herself from getting involved in this, it meant she’d have to stop herself from thinking about it too. It didn’t matter; all it ever had to be was a crazy experience that she’d one day forget about. Now, all she had to do was enjoy her night in the Magic Kingdom with the only people she’d ever called her friends.

* * *

 

            Willa screamed, laughing, as the Mine Train rollercoaster came to a close. She loved Disney World, and _Seven Dwarfs Mine Train_ was one of her favorite rides. It was a great coaster, and the innocence and fun of the Snow White theming made it even more enjoyable, enough, like most things in the resort, to make Willa forget any of her troubles. She pushed her now windswept hair out of her face as she waited for the train to pull into the loading dock.

She blew air through her lips and leaned forward on her lap-bar. She was seated by herself, with the four other girls pairing up and sitting in the two rows in front of her. With no one to chat with, she looked to her right where the ride’s final scene was set up: an homage to the old Snow White’s Scary Adventures Ride, depicting the source film’s dancing scene. Willa smiled: she always loved watching Snow White and the Dwarfs dancing through the cottage window.

She exhaled again. Why did it feel like the wait to get to the loading dock was taking longer than normal? She shook it off as hiccups while loading the next train, and continued to watch the ride’s final scene. Her eyes shifted to the scene’s other feature: The Evil Queen disguised as the old hag, waiting outside the cottage with a poison apple. As she watched the animatronic, her thoughts started to shift again to the past days’ events.

What if she was real? What if she was in danger just sitting here waiting? What if….Willa jumped in her seat and gasped as a loud sound suddenly came over her.

She caught her breath as she remembered the witch’s cackle sound effect, which was a standard part of the scene. She shook her head, laughing that she’d allowed herself to get that carried away by all of Casey’s wild stories. She looked away from the scene and closed her eyes.

But still, she couldn’t shake that something was definitely wrong. There was an uneasiness in her gut. The wait to get to the loading dock was starting to seem way longer than it should’ve been, even with some kind of problem.

She opened her eyes again and took a deep breath.

 _You’re being ridiculous_ she thought to herself. _You’re just paranoid. Nothing’s out of the ordinary._

She knew she shouldn’t, she knew it would upset her, but it was almost like she couldn’t help it: she turned her head and looked back at the Evil Queen animatronic.

Nothing happened, of course, and she chuckled, reminding herself again how stupid she was being. But then, almost on cue, the Queen’s head moved sharply, and looked right at her. The only reason Willa didn’t scream was that she was barely breathing. She quickly turned and looked to the passengers around her. No one seemed to be flinching or surprised.

She looked back to the animatronic; it was back in its original position, not moving, not looking at her, like nothing had ever happened. Then, suddenly, the train started up and moved, and they were back in the loading dock.

Cast Members welcomed them back, lap bars rose, and everyone exited the ride. Willa walked behind her friends as they returned to Fantasyland. They were chatting away about the ride, but Willa barely heard them. She was walking, but felt paralyzed with thought.

It didn’t happen; she knew it couldn’t have happened; everything around her indicated that it didn’t happen; she had to have just imagined it. As much as these thoughts came to her, one more kept repeating itself, over and over, one Dell had mentioned at _Earl of Sandwich_ , and one she knew to be true:

_Casey’s theory wasn’t crazy_

Her thoughts were suddenly broken by the sound of Alex, one of the other girls in the group, shouting out.

“Oh my gosh!” she called. “Look!”

Willa looked up and saw Alex pointing at a nearby area, where the Evil Queen was signing autographs.

The group immediately erupted in exclamations of excitement and awe: _she’s so rare, I’ve never seen her outside of Halloween, I can’t believe it, we need to go meet her!_

Willa immediately felt like she was sinking into the concrete beneath her. Her breathing was hastening, and her face grew hotter. She desperately fought to get control of her thoughts, and tried to remind herself all that she knew to be true: it had to be a coincidence; there was no other explanation. The Queen on the ride didn’t look at her; it meant nothing that the Queen was meeting outside right after.

All of a sudden, the Queen turned, and, just like it appeared to have happened on the ride, her eyes met Willa’s in a direct stare. They were feet away, but Willa could see them clearly: bright green irises with pupils blacker than the purest night sky.

 _You’re just paranoid,_ she reminded herself. _You’re just paranoid!_

She repeated the mantra in her head over and over, and each time it became more and more desperate, because it wasn’t working. She wanted to clench her eyes shut and look away, but it was like something wouldn’t let her; in this moment, she wasn’t even sure if she was blinking. Her friends were saying something to her but she couldn’t make out any of it; their voices were muffled, like they were underwater.

Willa’s breathing continued to hasten, and she was still locked in this stare now. It felt like she’d been like that for an eternity. It didn’t make sense: The Queen was just a Cast Member. Why was the Cast Member still looking at her?!

Willa felt a dull pain building in her gut then, and she clutched her stomach. What was that? Where was it coming from? Was it just from the nerves, or was it from something else? Why was she beginning to feel like she recognized the pain? Her breathing continued to hasten, the pain continued to grow, her friends shouts continued to get louder and louder, and there were more voices now too, but they were all still muffled, unrecognizable.

And then, a cold started to come over her, a sharp, biting, cold that almost seemed to come from within, strong enough to make her shiver, even though she could still feel the one-hundred degree sun beating down on her shoulders. The cold, like the pain, seemed too strangely familiar, and then she heard more screaming, this time distant rather than muffled. There were voices calling out to her, saying something, calling her name, but none of them were the voices of her friends. She didn’t recognize the voices, she was sure, but something about her knew them, wanted to…

She barely registered the fact that she’d lost her footing until she was falling towards the ground, and landing in Kelly and Alex’s arms. In a nanosecond, everything was over: she wasn’t cold; there was no pain; she was in Fantasyland, and a group of people, including her friends and a few Cast Members was gathered around her. The area music played loud and clear in her ears. She looked over to where the Evil Queen was meeting, and saw she had moved on, greeting the next child that had been on her line.

Willa looked at her friends and saw them terrified; clearly they’d witnessed everything.

“What the hell happened?!” Kelly exclaimed. “Are you okay?!”

“Miss,” a voice said, before Willa could have the chance to answer.

She looked up to see an old Cast Member with stark white hair crouched down next to her.

“Can I get you some help?” he asked.

He looked deeply concerned, more concerned than anyone else Willa could see. His eyes were locked on hers, filled with fear, and for a moment she got the strange sense that she’d seen him before.

Everyone was watching her, and everyone was scared, and everyone was waiting for an answer, and in an instant she knew she couldn’t stick around to explain.

“I’m fine,” she said, standing up and brushing off her clothes. “Heat just got the best of me for a second that’s all.”

“Let me get you some water,” the Cast Member said, attempting to lead her to a nearby bench.

“No!” she exclaimed, jumping back away from him.

This caused him to look even more confused, and she knew she was getting closer and closer to trouble the longer she stayed. She searched her brain for an excuse, but nothing came to her.

“I…I’m sorry,” she stuttered. “I have to go,”

The Cast Member was about to say something else, but Willa wasn’t going to stick around to hear it. Without another word, she broke from her friends’ grip and started sprinting towards the exit as fast as her feet could carry her.

* * *

 

            Finn was home alone, browsing channels in the living room when he heard the doorbell ring. Confused, he got up from the couch and slowly walked towards the front hallway. He wasn’t expecting anyone.

He opened the door and startled as he was met with a disheveled Willa. Her hair was coming out of its braid, and she was breathing heavily and covered in sweat. He was about to ask her what she was doing there when she spoke up.

“Tell me everything you know,” she panted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Willa's in! And we have our first possible Overtaker encounter? What comes next? What do you think? Thanks for all your love and support as always, and I'll see you Thursday! Stay magical!


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I know this update is two days late. I've been busy this week! That being said, we've got what's pretty much the last of the main Keeper "bio" chapters today, and once again, its not any less sad than the ones before it. I loved writing this chapter though, and I hope you enjoy it!

Terry Maybeck didn’t have time for fairytales. In fact, he barely had time for anything. His life was based on and scheduled around harsh reality: it had been that way for as long as he could remember. With the attitude of a realist forced upon him at a young age, he took the world at face value: nothing less, nothing more. As far as he was concerned, life was made up of two kinds of things: things that could hurt him and his Aunt, and things that couldn’t: it was that simple; he’d learned to stop looking for things that could actually help them a long time ago. The only things that would help them would be things that came from themselves.

He’d been orphaned at a young age, so young that he didn’t remember his parents at all. His Aunt Bess, Jelly to most, who’d taken him in, was the only parent he’d ever known, and he liked it that way just fine. They’d had a rough go of it in life, but she’d never given him anything less than the best she could offer, and never loved him like anything less than a son. He would do anything to protect her, just like she’d always done everything to protect him, and she was the only person in the world that he trusted at all other than himself. As far as he was concerned, it was she and him against the world.

There was a time when believing in fairy-tales hadn’t been too far-off of a possibility. Sure life had never been easy: growing up as a poor, black kid with no parents had plenty of challenges, but Jelly had always taught Terry not to focus on the world’s darkness. There was good in the world, she told him, every chance she got, every time he would cry as a kid: there was good in the world and you just had to be willing to look for it, and to put more good into the world in return, and not to ever forget that.

For a while, it had worked. Terry, an artist at heart from a young age, looked at the world with the bright attitude his Aunt had always instilled in him. He was good to others, even when others weren’t good to him, and he, like all the other kids did, described big dreams to his teachers when they asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. For a while he really, genuinely believed that he’d beat all adversity, and go to art school, and spend his life pursuing his passion, maybe becoming successful enough in it that he’d be able to make it so that his Aunt never wanted for anything ever again. Time went on though, and as he got older, Terry started to think that there was no point expecting good from a world that had never shown you any ounce of it to begin with, and there was no point making a real effort to give any good back either: this eventually became a life philosophy.

Things had been especially bad for the past few years. As high school ended, it had finally become certain that college was not in the cards. Jelly encouraged him to apply, begged him even, insisted that they’d find a way to make it work, but he knew it wasn’t even close to a possibility. He’d never have a life that would allow him to pay off the student loans that he’d have to take, and besides, he couldn’t leave her. Technically his Great Aunt, she was past middle age now, and getting too old to run her pottery painting shop, their only source of income, by herself. She would never admit it, not even to herself, but she needed him, and he wouldn’t abandon her.

A year ago, she’d come down with a bad cough, and, without being able to pay for good doctors or medicine, she’d never fully healed, and she’d been getting worse as time went on. Terry fronted the shop most of the time, took on all the responsibilities of running the business. He didn’t mind: this was his life; this was his job. Jelly had taken care of him his whole life when there was no-one else left to, and now it was time for him to do the same. He didn’t care at all, but it meant that any chance of doing anything else with his life truly was gone.

He was lost in thought now as he sat at the shop’s front counter, working on painting a Disney Castle design onto a ceramic vase. The place was empty, as it usually was; they didn’t get many customers coming to paint anymore, hadn’t in years, but tourists sometimes came in if they saw Disney-designed pieces in the window. So he painted; it was the best that they had. Right now though, he really wished that Cinderella castle wasn’t their most popular design.

For all his avoiding fairytales over the years, he didn’t know how one had been thrust right into his lap. The Kingdom Keepers being real: what a stupid idea. Even if the entire idea wasn’t crazy, he’d never have time to do anything about it. Even though he thought some of those kids he met were pretty cool, he couldn’t meet up with them. He couldn’t risk starting to feel like they were his friends; he didn’t have time for friends.

A fairytale: that’s what he was dealing with. If he was a Kingdom Keeper, his life certainly wouldn’t have been the way it was now. The kids in those books were famous, getting enough money from Disney for working as hologram hosts for the parks to sustain comfortable lives and pay for college. The kid Casey thought he was, Gary, didn’t have to worry about the things he had to worry about. They had similar backgrounds-he had to admit he’d noticed-but that was where it ended; Gary had money to make sure he and his Aunt didn’t have to struggle. Gary had close friends in the other Keepers. Gary got a girl who taught him to look at the good again. Gary was living a fairytale.

 _Gary got the girl_ : the thought snuck its way into Terry’s mind, and his paintbrush stopped moving. That was the worst part of all of this: Charlene Turner, the walking embodiment of a fairytale life, was involved; Charlene Turner, the head cheerleader; Charlene Turner, the most popular girl in school; Charlene Turner, the beautiful blonde with a million friends who everyone loved; Charlene Turner, the fairytale he’d never been able to really hate, no matter how much he wanted to.

The chime above the front door sounded, breaking Terry from his train of thought and causing him to look up. A girl around his age with pale blonde hair walked into the store, her hands held close to her in a shy stance. He recognized her from _Earl of Sandwich_ the other day.

“Hey,” he said, wiping his hands and walking out from behind the counter. “It’s Jess right?”

“Right,” Jess said, smiling shyly.

 “What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Oh nothing,” she said, swinging her arms now, and walking around in a small circle. “I just heard about this place and thought it sounded cool, and you seemed cool the other day. I thought maybe we could just chill.”

Terry’s jaw dropped slightly, unsure exactly of what to say, and after a moment Jess raised her eyebrows, expecting a response.

“I’m…I’m working,” he stuttered, trying to think of an excuse to get her out of there that didn’t involve the screaming match that had gone down with Charlene two nights before.

“There’s no one here,” Jess replied, two steps ahead of him.

He cursed under his breath, then sighed, knowing he’d lost. Besides, how bad could it be to have a pretty girl asking to spend time with him? He motioned to a stool opposite him at the counter, and Jess happily plopped herself down.

Terry was silent, having no idea at all how to behave in this situation. Jess, meanwhile, looked around the shop, and he immediately found himself tensing up. There wasn’t much to be said for the place lately, and surely looking around wouldn’t give this girl the best impression of him. Still, he had nothing to say to distract her from doing so.

“Did you paint those?” she asked, pointing to the shelf of pottery behind him.

“Yeah,” Terry said flatly.

“They’re really good!”

“Thanks.”

Terry looked away from her and Jess sighed; she knew from what Charlene had said that he’d be hard to reach, but this was proving even more of a challenge than she’d thought. The pressure was already on her enough; Finn had texted the group earlier saying that Willa was now on board, so Terry was the only one left to convince, and it was all up to Jess to do so. She still had more tools up her sleeve though, so she didn’t give up.

“What kind of paint do you like to use for the ceramics?” she asked.

“Mostly acrylic,” Terry said, without missing a beat. “It’s all we stock here.”

A moment of silence passed.

“I used watercolor on ceramics once,” Jess continued, hoping that indicating that she was also an artist might get her somewhere. “With the right brush it makes the coolest effect,”

Terry said nothing, just nodded slightly, already having gone back to painting his vase.

“Still drawing’s my thing mostly. Paint’s cool, but there’s just something about pencil to paper that really makes me feel so alive.”

Silence.

 _There goes that idea_ Jess thought. She was running out of tactics.  

Jess blew air out of her lips as she thought about what to say next. Terry wasn’t budging, and she knew she couldn’t leave here without convincing him to join up with the rest of them. Once Charlene had come to Finn’s house the other night, the first thing that the group of five had decided was that their first priority should be convincing the other two to join them. Jess knew too, could sense, when thinking about what she’d dreamt, that they wouldn’t get anywhere without all seven of them involved.

She sighed, and took a deep breath. What she was going to say next could backfire, but it was the only way left she could think of to get through to him. She closed her eyes, put on her game face, and addressed him again.

“Alright, it’s time to cut the crap!” she said harshly.

This had gotten Terry’s attention, as she’d planned, and he finally looked up at her, albeit angrily.

“Excuse me?” he snapped.

“Stop playing that brooding _I’ve got my walls up_ shit; it’s not gonna work on me.”

Jess crossed her arms, and Terry’s eyes widened. He raised his eyebrows as if to ask her a question.

“An orphan can recognize another orphan in a crowd of thousands,” she explained, speaking softly. “It’s the look in your eye. It also means I know what it’s like to push people away from you to protect yourself, and I can tell when someone’s doing it to me.”

Jess kept a hard stare, and Terry looked at her shocked for a moment, before letting out a breath. His stance softened, and Jess even thought she saw the slightest hint of a smile crossing his face.

 “Sorry,” he chuckled nervously. “I’m just used to…”

“Shutting people out,” Jess said, finishing his thought. “I know; me too.”

The tension that had been sitting between them softened, and they shared a knowing smile. Terry turned away for a moment to grab another color of paint, and Jess let out a painful sigh; she’d finally gotten to him like she’d hoped, but the hardest part of the day was far from over.

“Terry you have to come meet with me and the others,” she said.

Immediately the tension rose again, and the angry look he wore on his face moments earlier returned.

“I knew it!” he snapped. “I knew this was all some kind of trick!”

“I’m sorry,” Jess pleaded. “I’m not trying to upset you, but you need to listen to me!”

“All that stuff you said to get me to trust you,” he sneered. “None of that was probably even true. You probably just came up with that act after _Charlie_ told you what I said to her the other day.”

“No,” Jess shot back, growing angered herself now. “I wouldn’t lie about that.”

Terry rolled his eyes and looked away, returning to his work. He wasn’t even acknowledging that she was there anymore. Without him saying a word, she got the message: he wanted her gone.

Sighing loudly, she slid herself off the stool and turned to him once more, refusing to leave without a fight.

“You know, people like you and me, we all get a choice in life,” she said. “We get to choose how we look at our pasts. On the one hand, we can let them define us, accept whatever life handed us and keep letting it push us down until we’re so bitter that we don’t let anyone or anything in. Or, we can use our pasts to strengthen us; we can take all the tragedy and use it as a drive to move forward away from whatever happened to us; we can take what the world did to us and use it as a reason to say screw you world, and to find something better.”

Terry didn’t say anything, or turn around to look at her, but he stood frozen, having stopped what he was doing.

“I used to be like you,” Jess continued. “Until very recently; I didn’t let anyone into my life, and I just focused on what would get me to the next day, everything else be damned. But these people Terry? This thing that Casey’s asking us to do? This is an opportunity to go the other way; this is a chance to move forward, to find what good things life has to offer despite what it offered in the past.”

There was silence for a few moments, and Jess dipped her head before turning to walk away. Maybe there really was no getting to him. But then, just as she was about to reach the door, she heard his voice coming back from the counter.

“It’s just a chance though,” he said. “This whole story is batshit and you know it, and before long that’ll be proven true, and then this’ll all be over, and we could end up in _real_ trouble, and then we’d be worse off than we were when we started. It’s not worth the risk: we’re all actually characters from a children’s book series? Come on!”

Jess turned, and now Terry was facing her. Their eyes really met for the first time that day, and looking in his she could see the part of him that wanted to believe, the part of him that _would_ believe; she just had to reach it. Not breaking eye contact, she planted herself more squarely on the ground, held her chin high, and spoke again.

“Do you ever have those dreams?” she asked. “Those weird dreams, that you remember better than all of the others, that you wake up from with this weird unexplainable feeling in your gut that you can’t identify, that you remember clear as day for weeks, months, _years_ after they’ve happened, even though you forget other dreams seconds after you wake up, those dreams that you confuse with reality sometimes because they just seem so real? Maybe they were never dreams. Maybe they were something else all along, and you just couldn’t see it.”

Terry looked confused, but intrigued, and their eyes still had not broken their shared gaze.

“We’re meeting at Finn’s house tomorrow night at ten.” Jess said. “Maybe we’ll see you there.”

She tossed a small index card at him before walking out the door without another word.

Terry, nearly paralyzed with shock, reached down and picked it up before reading what it said. A nearby address was scrawled in scratchy handwriting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Terry join up with the rest of the group after talking to Jess? What will the Keepers talk about when they meet up again? See you on Thursday when we find out! Thanks for all your love and support, thanks for reading, and stay magical! Hope you enjoyed!


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is late again and I'm so sorry! The show I'm in opens in two weeks, and I just started at a new job, so I've been super busy! I hope you enjoy the chapter all the same though, cause things are really about to get rolling now! Enjoy!

Terry checked the address Jess had given him again before looking up at the house in front of him. It was right, for the fifth time, and he sighed, relenting to the fact that he hadn’t made a mistake; this was the place. Finn’s house was nice, at least nicer than any house he’d ever been in. Being in front of it made everything more real; he was here to meet with this group of people who he didn’t know, and certainly didn’t trust. He was giving himself up to spend a significant amount of time with them, and making himself vulnerable in the process. How could he expect any of them to understand him when they were used to a house like this? Furthermore, how could he expect any of them to even _like_ him?

“Hi!”

He startled as his trance was broken by a voice sounding from behind. He turned to see Charlie standing behind him.

“Oh, hey,” he said shyly, breathing a sigh of relief.

She chuckled slightly at his jumpiness, and he found himself doing the same. They stood there in silence for a few moments, and she held herself nervously, something that, in the four years that they’d been in school together, he’d never seen her do. A few more moments passed before they both realized they’d been staring at each other, and quickly looked away.

“About the other day,” Charlie blurted out, leaning towards him abruptly. Terry put out a hand to stop her.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

“No,” Charlie insisted. “I’m sorry; it was wrong of me to barge in like that, and all of those things I said…”

“Nah, I was being a dick,” Terry said. “Really, it’s okay.”

This seemed to earn a smile from Charlie, who grinned shyly and brushed her hair behind her ear.

“So, maybe we just forget it ever happened?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Terry stuttered, finding he was breathing a bit easier than he’d been before. “That sounds great,”

They started to melt a bit, in spite of themselves, and their smiles grew ever so gradually, when suddenly a new voice sounded from behind them.

“Oh thank god,” it said. “I’m not the first one here!”

They turned to see Willa walking up the path, clutching the straps of a tiny backpack. She held herself in a way that made her appear to be trying to sink into the floor, and her face was so pointedly still that she looked as if she may vomit at any moment.

“Why would that matter?” Charlie asked. “Haven’t you been here before?”

“Yes,” Willa said, her voice shaking slightly, and her gaze half-pointed at her feet. “I was, but it was just…awkward, just being me and Finn. I don’t do so well around new people.”

Willa sunk even further into herself, realizing that she had, as she often did, overshared. She bit at her nails. This entire ordeal was terrifying enough as it was, especially after the experience she’d had the day before, and Charlie and Terry certainly didn’t seem like the easiest people to become comfortable around. Finn was nice at least, but being around them made her feel like she was right back in high school.

 “I mean….isn’t it awkward anyway?” Charlie asked. “We’re all new at this.”

Just then, Dell walked up to them, smiling brightly and practically skipping.

“Cool, everyone’s here!” he exclaimed. “Why haven’t we gone in yet?”

Willa’s feet turned inward, and she turned immediately ashen.

“Now it’s awkward,” Terry said, earning a cold stare from Willa.

Dell raised an eyebrow, oblivious to what was happening, and Charlie stifled a laugh, when the door opened, revealing Finn.

“You’re here!” he said brightly. “Come in! We just ordered pizza.”

The others poked their head through the door to see Amanda and Jess, already seated on the living room floor, and shyly waving. They waited a moment and looked at each other; they were really doing this. Then, slowly, they made their way past Finn through the doorway, to start an adventure, not one of them knowing how it was going to play out.

* * *

 

Later that evening, the Keepers were gathered in a circle on Finn’s living room floor, two half-empty pizza boxes and hordes of scattered plates and napkins sitting in between them. The first hour had resulted in awkward silences, small talk, and trying to figure out where to begin, or what it even was they were talking about. Eventually, they’d decided to survey what they already knew. They had reviewed Casey’s theory, and Willa had recounted her experience in the Magic Kingdom, which had gotten everyone’s attention more than anything else. Now they all sat in silence again, shocked, pale, and even slightly nauseous.

“So I suppose we can all agree that this whole thing has become credible,” Finn said.

“There’s enough evidence,” Charlie offered, shrugging.

Amanda and Jess shared a glance, knowing what each other was thinking: they had evidence to share too, things better and more conclusive than anything mentioned before, but they knew they couldn’t; their powers had to remain a secret.

“So then how did we get here?” Terry, still hesitant, asked. “Where the hell are we? _Who_ the hell are we? If we are the Kingdom Keepers, how did we end up like this?”

“According to Casey,” Dell said. “The main theory is that they…we…whoever…reset time in 1955 when defeating the Overtakers, resulting in none of the books’ events ever happening. If that’s true, and we’re them, we likely created a parallel universe, which is where I’d say we’d be now.”

“Wait, wouldn’t it be more like an alternate timeline?” Willa said, staring into space, clearly in her own head. Dell raised his eyebrows at her. She sighed before clarifying.

“If it was a parallel universe, there would be other versions of all of us existing at the same time and living lives as the characters in the books,” she explained. “What Casey’s suggesting, that we once were the Keepers, but altered the past and returned to a different life in which we couldn’t remember our old one, has us as the same people, just with different lives, and thus without our memories: that would be an alternate timeline.”

“So like...we created a rift? Or we’re _in_ a rift?”

“Maybe?”

Everyone looked back and forth between the two as they bantered, and no one else understood what they were talking about, which made sense, because they’d stopped addressing the entire group. Exchanging theories and pieces of information, they’d escaped into their own space without realizing it, and they looked only at each other across the circle.

“Okay,” Terry said, interjecting. “Slow down a bit! Let’s focus on one thing at a time. I’m not even sure I believe we’re “other people” right now, but what seems clear, and more important for us to address, is that something weird is happening in the parks.”

“Like what I saw with the Evil Queen,” Willa said.

“Exactly.”

Finn looked around the circle, and everyone either nodded or verbally expressed their agreement.

“Alright,” he said. “So we have a starting point. What next?”

“Ever since Casey told us that there were multiple reports sighting a doll moving, I’ve done a bit of research, and it turns out there are all kinds of ride incident reports,” Dell said. “I can look into that more and see what I can find,”

“I can do that too,” Willa offered.

Dell looked at her, and they shared a brief smile, before quickly looking away from each other.

“Okay,” Finn said. “So Dell and Willa will research the park incidents, I’ll fill in Casey, and we reconvene here tomorrow same time?”

“Sounds good to me,” Dell said.

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed.

Finn looked around and found everyone looking at him in agreement. One by one, all of them met eyes across the circle. The decision was clear now: they were journeying into the unknown, into the possible insanity. Knowing this, and sitting in a circle, alone, the seven of them could feel the energy in the air; something was building. It wasn’t quite a friendship; they weren’t there yet, but there was certainly something: they were in this together.

Finn, feeling slightly like an idiot once he’d done it, stood up and reached his hand out in front of him, silently signaling everyone else to join him. They all raised their eyebrows at him, but as corny as it was, something in him knew it just felt right.

Dell was the first to get up and join him, placing his hand on top of Finn’s. The two boys nodded at each other before Jess also came over, then Amanda, then Willa, then Charlie. They all looked to Terry then, who still remained sitting down. Eventually, he sighed, and stood up before joining his hand in the middle with the rest of them.

Finn eyed everyone in the circle one more time. He nodded, moved his hand down, and they all broke from the center, like middle school-kids at a field day competition.

Something had begun.

* * *

 

    _It was the middle of the night, but they were all together. The night air was cool, but there was warmth between them. She was laughing, larger and louder than she’d ever remembered laughing, and Amanda was next to her, with five other people, five people who she’d seen in her dreams before, but never recognized, only now they had names. The area around her was almost blurry, not mapped-out clearly enough by her mind for her to recognize, but she thought she saw the spires of a castle, covered in lights._

_The scene changed and then there were a pair of lips on hers, lips she wasn’t expecting, but lips that she liked. She knew something about this moment for some reason: she was sneaking around, at risk of getting caught, putting her future in jeopardy, but she didn’t care, because she knew she needed to; it was to help someone, she was helping someone, her and Amanda they were helping…_

_The scene changed again, and then they were sitting in someone’s house. It was a house that had appeared in her dreams before, but only now did she recognize it. The people around her once again had names, and again they were smiling, laughing, having a good time. They were friends; they were family. Across from her in the circle, there was Amanda and she was smiling, like she’d never smiled before, and there was an arm around her shoulder and it belonged to…_

_The scene changed one more time and now….now it was dark. She was talking to Amanda, but…something was wrong. She glanced down at her shoulder and saw hair falling on it, but not her hair; here her hair was black, even though she knew it had always been a pale blonde, nearly white. Amanda looked…scared, or sad: she couldn’t tell which. And then, the worst, more alarming than anything, was the feeling, like there was a screaming in her head, like…her own voice screaming. Her head pounded, and her heart raced, and her body temperature felt icy cold, and all she could feel was the pressing sense of imminent doom. Something was wrong, something was very wrong, like she was trapped, like…_

Jess shot up in a cold sweat.  She reached her hands out and grabbed her sheets to anchor to reality, reminding herself that she was in her bedroom, and she was safe. For a minute she just sat still like that, waiting for her breathing to slow. _It was just a dream_ she told herself. _You’re safe; it was just a dream_. Of course she knew that this was only wishful thinking to get herself back to sleep; for her, nothing was ever just a dream.

A light turned on from across the room, and Jess looked over to see that Amanda was awake. Knowing how to recognize when her sister had come out of a dream, she was already fully alert, despite waking up in the middle of the night.

“What happened?” she asked. “Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine,” Jess assured her. “It was just a regular nightmare; go back to sleep.”

Amanda squinted her eyes; she knew how to tell when her sister was lying. Jess forced a wide grin, hoping she’d be able to keep up a ruse of normalcy.

“Really Manda, I’m fine,” she repeated. “I promise. Just go back to sleep; we have a long shift tomorrow.”

Amanda seemed unconvinced, but, sensing Jess wasn’t going to give up her story, turned off the light and laid back down, pulling the covers up to her neck. Jess watched her, waiting for the slow breaths that indicated her sister was sleeping, before letting out a sigh.

 _Thank God she’s an instant sleeper_ she thought.

She hated lying to Amanda, and she hated that lately she’d been doing it more and more, but she had to; they had enough to worry about- staying invisible, getting by without credit cards or drivers licenses or bank accounts, lest they be found- and Amanda was already as upset as she’d be able to handle about this Kingdom Keepers thing, though she’d never admit it.

Jess didn’t like lying, but she knew she had to this time to protect her sister; Amanda could never know the truth: Jess was used to unusual dreams, but what she’d experienced tonight was unlike anything she ever had before. She was used to dreaming the future, knew what it felt like, and what she dreamt tonight was not a vision of the future.

These were memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What will Jess do now that she's had this dream? What's next for the Keepers now that they have a plan? Guess you'll find out on Sunday(or Monday, I'm honestly still super busy). Until next time, thanks for all your love and support as always Keepers, hope you enjoyed, and stay magical!!


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look at that, another late chapter! I'm so sorry my busy schedule has kept the fic delayed! I should have something up on time this Thursday, I promise. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The next day, Finn was at work, waiting at the counter during another uneventful day. His best friend Dillard, who also worked at the rec center, stood next to him, fiddling with a game on his phone.

“So you just invited these strangers over your house?” Dillard asked.

With nothing else to do, Finn had been telling Dillard about his experiences the past few days. He knew he probably shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help it: he told Dillard everything.

“They actually turned out to be pretty cool; I’m seeing them again tonight,” he said.

“What’s her name?” Dillard asked suddenly.

“What?!”

“Come on Finn, I know you,” Dillard said. “You’re not exactly on the lookout to meet new people, or you wouldn’t complain to me every other day about how your parents nag you about it. If you’re this interested in this thing, there’s gotta be a girl.”

“You’re…” Finn started to protest, but Dillard simply raised his eyebrows, causing Finn to laugh and sigh, giving up. His best friend knew him better than anyone, maybe better than he even knew himself.

“Her name’s Amanda,” he said, giving in.

“ _Oooh_ ,” Dillard teased, before Finn punched him in the arm, and he laughed.

“I don’t know,” Finn continued, trying to find the right words to describe the situation he didn’t even understand himself. He didn’t dare tell Dillard about the moment at Disney Springs, feeling like he’d met her before. He didn’t need his only close friend thinking he was crazy.

“We haven’t even talked that much. It’s just….I’ve never felt like I feel when I’m around her. She’s just…intriguing.”

For as much as Finn had tried to ignore thinking too much about his confusion over Amanda, he found himself smiling. It was freeing to be able to tell someone about her, about how he felt. It made it feel normal, like that was the way it was supposed to be.

“Have you asked her out yet?” Dillard asked, popping a potato chip into his mouth.

“What?! No! Why would I do that?”

“Because you _like_ her?”

“But, she’s not gonna say _yes_!” Finn stammered. The joy that he’d started to feel was very rapidly evolving into embarrassment.

“You don’t know that!” Dillard insisted.

“I just met her Dill,”

“You know what I say dude,” Dillard quipped. “If you don’t take a chance, you don’t have a chance.”

Finn sighed and rolled his eyes. The phrase, which Dillard had happened upon while writing a paper on his ninth grade English final, was his favorite point to use against Finn, or to use in any situation really. He looked to Dillard and saw him already laughing, knowing what Finn’s reaction would be.

“Why are you obsessed with that sentence?” Finn asked.

“Hey,” Dillard said. “In twenty years, I’ve been able to milk one singular piece of wisdom out of this old noggin: I’m gonna run with it as far as I can.”

Finn started to laugh, and Dillard did too, but all of a sudden, something stopped him. A feeling of aching crossed his gut, one that he’d never felt before, but one that felt alarmingly familiar all at once: he was beginning to experience that sensation way too often for his liking. His eyes went to Dillard, back at his phone, and still laughing from the moment before. It should’ve made him happy, should’ve taken his mind off of whatever was happening, but instead he only felt worse, and he felt like he was going to start hyperventilating.

Thoughts started to cross his mind, thoughts that had no reason for being there: he loved talking to Dillard; Dillard was his best friend; Dillard was his only friend; what if he lost him? Unexpected things happened in the blink of an eye every day, people dying, and all of them had families and friends who never thought they’d lose them? What if it happened to Dillard? What if one day, in an instant, without warning, he was just gone?

Finn felt tears coming to his eyes that he desperately didn’t want there; he didn’t need Dillard seeing him and questioning what the hell was going on. He wouldn’t even begin to know how to explain it.

“Dill?” he asked.

“What?” Dillard replied.

“What if….this whole thing….would I be crazy if I said maybe it’s not crazy?”

Silence hung in the air for a while and Dillard simply stared at him, and Finn felt panicked, not sure what would be said next. Dillard looked serious, which he rarely did, and Finn immediately regretted ever saying anything.

“Well,” Dillard finally said. “If you’re not crazy, and it isn’t crazy….you better tell me first thing. I don’t wanna be missing out on any of the action. And if not I won’t forget to visit you in the psych ward.”

Dillard maintained an only slightly straight face as he cracked the joke, and Finn immediately released a breath as he let out a burst of laughter: classic Dillard; he had nothing to worry about. But with that thought, the worry and the aching returned, and no matter what, he just couldn’t shake them.

“Hey man,” he said. “You know I….you know I care about you right? I mean like I don’t mean…..I just….you mean a lot to me and you know….you know I love you right?”

Dillard stared at him again, before smirking.

“Relax Whitman,” he said. “I’m not jumping out of a plane tomorrow or anything.”

He laughed, but for the first time that afternoon Finn found himself unable to do the same.

“Hey,” Dillard said, jumping into a protective mode. “You okay? Did something happen?”

“Yeah, no…I’m fine.” Finn stuttered. “Sorry.”

Neither of them said anything for a moment, with Finn still in agony, and unable to figure out why.

“I love you too man,” Dillard said.

The friends shared a soft smile, before the bell above the door sounded, and Dillard nodded at Finn before walking over to help the mother and child that had come in. Meanwhile, Finn continued to sit at the desk, flabbergasted at what had just happened.

What if all of this really _wasn’t_ crazy? He’d considered it before, but he’d only thought about the action and adventure and friendship being true. Now though, he realized something else: in the books, Liam Kane lost his best friend during a battle with the Overtakers; if he really was Liam Kane, if it was all true, what did it mean if bad things were true too?

* * *

 

            Jess walked through the Magic Kingdom with her head down, making sure not to make eye contact with anyone. She knew that it was unlikely anyone here would recognize her, but she could never be too careful. Besides, today was a secret; not even Amanda knew she was here. Pulling the brim of her baseball cap over her eyes, she made her way down Main-street until she made it to the Plaza Restaurant, and turned right towards Tomorrowland Terrace. There, another girl was already waiting, looking just as careful and closed off as her.

Mattive Weaver was a girl who was also used to living in secret. She’d been friends with Jess and Amanda in Barracks 14, and, like them, she had powers that no one knew about but the others who had them. She’d escaped from the Barracks about a year after Jess and Amanda, and they’d been friends for a while, until a difference on how they saw things had driven them apart. Mattie, when she was 15, had turned herself into the system and been placed with a foster family. Amanda, feeling betrayed, had picked a fight, and the girls hadn’t seen each other since.

Jess had found her on Facebook a few months ago, and, without telling Amanda that she did so, sent her a friend request. They’d been in light contact since then, and, after Jess had had her dream, she knew Mattie was the only person she could turn to get further answers.

The girl waiting for her in front of Tomorrowland Terrace was not the Mattie that Jess had known as a child. She looked good, despite her current state of stress. Her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, and she wore a black tank-top and light colored jeans with white Keds and a lightweight red sweater.  She had makeup on her face, and she carried a bag that was clearly bought somewhere other than the dollar store.  One thing was the same though: a signature pair of black gloves, even though it was May in central Florida. 

Life had been good for Mattie since they’d parted ways, as far as Jess understood. She’d been with three foster families, and the third had adopted her. Though she still dealt with the struggle of hiding her powers, she lead a mostly normal life. She had two younger siblings, went to college, and spent her summers working in the Magic Kingdom, which is how she’d gotten Jess entry into the park that day.

Jess let out a sigh as she saw her old friend. She was happy to see her, of course, and happy for her, but seeing her now reminded her of what she could have had if she’d made different decisions. Amanda was insistent on living in hiding, knowing no-one but each other, so much so that Jess hadn’t dared suggest anything otherwise, even though, when Mattie had first told them what she’d done, Jess had wondered if things really could have been different. Seeing how Amanda reacted to Mattie’s news had stopped her from ever bringing it up, but, now, that she saw how Mattie lived five years later, she couldn’t help but wonder if they’d made the wrong decision. There were risks, she knew, and most people weren’t as lucky as Mattie, but thinking about how she and Amanda were living now…

Remembering why she came, she shook off the thought and walked towards her old friend, who turned and flashed her a nervous smile. The girls walked towards each other and started in for a hug, then stopped, then reached out for a hand shake, and stopped again, before finally setting on a head nod and a few moments of awkward silence.

“You look good,” Mattie offered.

“No I don’t,” Jess said. “You look good. That’s why we’re here,”

“No, we’re here because you’ve apparently gone nuts since we last met,”

Mattie laughed, but Jess crossed her arms.

“Come on Mattie,” she said. “You and I are the only ones who know why I know that it’s _not_ crazy.”

“I was just teasing,” Mattie said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Jess said nothing for a moment, then exhaled, reminding herself to let go of her defensive side.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m just tense. Thanks for doing this by the way,”

“Well don’t thank me yet,” Mattie said, starting to walk to Mainstreet again, indicating for Jess to follow. “I don’t even know if this is going to work.”

“You’re my best hope,” Jess said. “If I tell Amanda about the dream she’ll flip.”

At the mention of Amanda, Mattie’s smile faded, and Jess immediately regretted bringing things up. The three of them had been close, and after the fight, both girls were hurt, even though Amanda wouldn’t admit it.

“Can’t I just read _you_?” Mattie asked. “See if _you_ have any memories?” She sounded much more stressed than she had before. She was starting to seem more like the Mattie that Jess had known.

“That won’t work,” Jess insisted. “I was dreaming my memories; I know I have them. If you read me we won’t know anything more than we do now.”

Mattie sighed.

 “I haven’t read anyone in years,” she said. “And I’ve never tried to read a _thing_ before. I’ve just been waiting until my powers finally fade away; my family doesn’t even know.”

“I really, _really_ , appreciate this Matt,” Jess said, using the nickname she used to refer to her friend by. “I know how much you’re risking by doing this for me, and believe me I wouldn’t ask if I weren’t totally desperate.”

Mattie was silent for a moment, and Jess was unsure how she would respond, but eventually she looked at her again, and her face melted into a soft smile.

“I know you wouldn’t,” she said. “That’s why I agreed to help; I wouldn’t this do for anyone but you and Manda.”

The girls exchanged smiles, and Jess felt a cry holding itself back in her throat. There was a time when Mattie had been as close to Jess and Amanda as they were to each other, and, until they started talking again, Jess hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed her. She thought back to the days when they were still newly out on the run, the three of them feeling free and like they’d finally bested the universe; so much had changed since then. Even things with Amanda were different, and Jess felt them drifting further and further apart as the years went on. Meeting Mattie again and being forced to think about the fight all those years ago was a sharp reminder of how differently she and Amanda were starting to see the world, and how much it was affecting them. Lately she’d started to wonder how long it would be before one of them admitted it, and she finally ended up completely on her own, too old to find herself a family.

Her train of thought was broken by the feel of a gloved hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Mattie, looking at her with a mix of sympathy and concern.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s do this thing. Maybe this’ll be enough to convince Amanda, and then you’re halfway there,”

Mattie laughed nervously as she approached the wall of the castle, where they now stood, in the area just behind the stage. Jess looked at her quizzically: more and more she was seeming further from the girl that Jess had grown up with.

“When did you become such an optimist, Matt?” she asked.

“When life showed me an optimistic side,” Mattie said brightly. “That’s why I wanna do this for you: if what you’ve told me is true, maybe life did the same for you after all,”

Jess wasn’t sure what to say, but she didn’t have the chance; Mattie had pulled off her glove, and her hand was hovering in front of the castle wall.

“Matt,” She placed a hand on her arm. “You don’t have to.”

“No it’s fine,” Mattie assured her, her voice shaking slightly. “I just don’t know what to expect.”

“Neither do I.”

Mattie exhaled and slowly moved her hand forward until it was touching the castle brick. Jess stood by, ready to catch her, remembering how dizzying the effect had often been for her. Mattie’s eyes were closed, and her face was scrunched, but nothing else seemed different. Jess was about to ask if anything had happened, when she saw Mattie’s stance tighten. A moment passed before she began to speak.

“Oh my god,” she whispered.

“What?!” Jess said, half-shouting, frightened now at what Mattie could possibly have seen.

“No, nothing wrong,” Mattie explained. “It’s just….the castle….I see the castle at night and there’s no one in the park except…there…down in the front.”

Mattie, a mind-reader, was trying to draw out a memory from Cinderella castle, and it seemed to be working. She stopped speaking, and Jess watched her face scrunch up. Thinking quickly, she grabbed her arm, trying to be supportive, but as soon as she did, everything changed.

Jess could hardly breathe. She was sure that she was still there, physically, because her feet began to feel like they were made of lead, but she didn’t feel like she was on Main Street anymore, not in the same way she had been. She looked around and saw the nighttime scene that Mattie had been describing. Her first thought was that she was having a dream, but this was not like her other dreams. Those were like visions; this was…different, and not the same as the one she’d had the night before either. She was terrified, and she wanted badly to escape it, to let go of Mattie, whose arm she could still feel in her grip, but she remembered what she’d been thinking about minutes earlier, and she remembered what Jamie Kendall’s life was like in the books. She gripped Mattie tighter and looked around.

Standing where Mattie had indicated before, there were nine…no, ten people: nine people and an old man with shocking white hair who Jess couldn’t help but feel like she recognized. Talking to him….a tall-ish, skinny boy with brown hair.

 _Finn_ Jess whispered to herself, but if Mattie heard her, she didn’t say anything.

Standing around them were a boy Jess didn’t recognize, and seven others. Jess squinted; they were far away, but before long, she recognized them clearly. She thought her feet were going to buckle out from under her. It was them: Charlie, Dell, Terry, Willa, herself, Amanda and….

Seeing it shocked her so much that she must have lost her hold on Mattie, because the next thing she knew, she was back in the crowded Magic Kingdom, buckling back away from the castle. She was hyperventilating, and took a moment to catch her breath before looking up to see Mattie, wide eyed, turning towards her.

“Did you just…” Mattie started.

“Yes,” Jess panted. “What was that?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never felt anything like that before; it wasn’t like my normal visions.”

“It wasn’t like mine either. So what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Mattie said again. “But you saw what I saw right?”

“Yes,” Jess replied. “Everyone’s skin…it was glowing.”

“Including mine,” Mattie said quietly.

“Yes,” Jess muttered, after a moment. “You were there.”

Mattie froze for a moment, looking down at the floor. Slowly, she looked back up at Jess, and a look of pure terror crossed her face. When she finally spoke again, her voice was tight and shaking, like her vocal chords were held still, just barely croaking out the sound.

 “Jessie,” she said. “I don’t think we are who we think we are,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened to Jess and Mattie?! How will Jess move forward from here? And what does it mean for Finn now that he's had these thoughts about Dillard? See you on Thursday, when all the Keepers meet up again! Until then, thanks for all your love and support, and stay magical!


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An on time chapter! An on time chapter! Here it is! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I had so much fun writing it! My apologies, this chapter got a bit longer than I had anticipated. Enjoy!

That night, Finn walked down the stairs from his bedroom, Willa having texted him five minutes ago to say that she was on her way. Before he could make his way to the foyer to wait for the others, he ran into his mother coming out of the kitchen. He sighed; he couldn’t escape a conversation now.

“You look so nice Finn,” his mother said brightly.

Finn surveyed his outfit. He’d put on cargo shorts and a polo, and put a little gel into his hair as well.

“Those kids are coming over again tonight right?”

“Yeah,” Finn said. “They should be here any minute.”

He tried to turn to the door again, but his mother stopped him.

“Is there any _reason_ why you’re dressing so nice?” she asked, leaning into him, her voice clearly indicating that she was holding herself back from bursting.

“What do you mean?” he asked, trying not to let his voice show how quickly annoyed he was becoming.

“Well….there were quite a few girls here the other night…”

“ _Mom_ ,” Finn protested, cutting her off.

“I’m just saying…”

“I’m having company, that’s all. I thought I should look nice,”

“That Amanda girl seemed to…”

“Mom!” Finn shouted once more, which finally silenced her. She looked as if she wanted to say something else, but just smirked at him and turned away.

Finn sighed, feeling bad, and was about to apologize when the doorbell rang.  Before he opened it, he took a moment to straighten out his shirt, and to check his hair in the mirror, not knowing who had arrived first. His Mom wasn’t wrong; he had taken Amanda into slight consideration when getting dressed for the evening: of course he’d never tell her that.

He opened the door to reveal Charlie, greeting him with a bright smile.

“Hey!” she said.

“Hi!” Finn replied.

She held up a plastic Tupperware container.

“I made lemon bars with my Mom this afternoon, so I thought I’d bring some over, if that’s okay,” she explained. “I don’t wanna step-on your Mom’s _amazing_ cookies,”

She laughed, like she was speaking to an old friend.

“It’s more than okay,” Finn said lightly. “There’s no such thing as too many sweets.”

Finn was ushering Charlie inside, when a voice came from behind her.

“Sweets?” Willa said, appearing from over Charlie’s shoulder, her thick brown curls bouncing just below her shoulders, rather than being held in their normal braid.

“How do you guys know me so well already?!”

The three greeted each other and stepped inside, when Mrs. Whitman came up behind Finn.

“How lovely that you girls are here!” she said. “Charlie I can take those lemon bars and put them into the kitchen for you.”

Finn begged for an escape then, but there didn’t seem to be one; as Charlie handed his mother the container of lemon-bars, Amanda and Jess could be seen walking up the path.

“Oh!” Mrs. Whitman squealed, reaching what was probably the highest frequency her voice was capable of producing. “All four girls are here! Isn’t this wonderful? Finn never has girls over you know.”

Amanda and Jess raised their eyebrows as they made their way inside, and Finn turned a bright shade of red. That moment was the first time in his life he thought he truly understood the feeling of wanting to die from embarrassment.

Amanda caught sight of him and covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Finn raised his eyebrows at her in a challenge, and she returned the gesture. Jess watched them carefully and her expression went serious, remembering what she had seen with Mattie and in her dream. Not wanting to reveal herself, she shoved her fear down, and turned to Charlie and Willa, who were happily chatting with Mrs. Whitman.

“Finn, your Mom is so adorable!” Charlie exclaimed.

Before Finn could say anything for himself, his mother took charge.

“Oh don’t say that girls,” she said. “He’s embarrassed by me.”

All of the girls laughed and cooed as if teasing Finn, even Amanda, and again, he felt his cheeks growing red and wanted to sink into the floorboards he was standing on. Just then, Dell was at the house, knocking on the door frame.

“What’d I miss?” he asked.

All attention turned to him, and Finn breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

“Dude,” he said. “You’re my savior.”

Dell looked confused, but everyone laughed, even Finn, and eventually, he joined suit.

“Does this mean I get more cookies?” Dell asked.

Everyone laughed again, including Finn’s mother, and he was starting to mind her involvement a little bit less. All the while, Amanda had never stopped smiling at him, and he hadn’t failed to notice. Smiling at her, and being smiled at by her, was beginning to become his favorite activity.

Terry arrived last, walking in the door less excitedly than the rest of them,

“’Sup?” he asked.

Everyone greeted him brightly, save for Charlie, who fell silent and held up her hand in a shy wave. No one missed how she, normally radiating confidence, seemed to become a shy, shadow of herself, playing with her clothes and pushing her hair behind her ears.

Dell offered a smile to Willa, and she returned it quickly before turning away. Finn and Amanda were still undergoing an endless exchange of shy looks, and no one was saying anything.

“Alright!” Jess exclaimed. “Shall we head upstairs?”

* * *

 

            Later, all seven “Keepers” sat in a circle on the floor of Finn’s bedroom. It was more of a squeeze than it had been before, but no one seemed to mind. They’d been there almost an hour and, somehow, no business had yet been done. All of Charlie’s lemon-bars, plus an entire plate of Mrs. Whitman’s cookies, were gone. Another plate was already half-way finished, and everyone was currently nibbling on them, leaned back and laughing.

While they hadn’t talked about their supposed mission yet, they had fallen into a discussion about _Kingdom Keepers_ : listing their favorite parts and characters, discussing what moments shocked them, and debating their feelings on the movies.

“Okay,okay” Finn said, as everyone was still laughing from the last comment that had been made. “We gotta talk about this: what do you think of the ending?”

Everyone groaned in mock protest.

“You’re treading into dangerous territory there Whitman,” Amanda said, appearing more comfortable than she’d been since he first met her.

“I thought it was a total cop-out,” Terry said. “How can you not tell me how something like that ends?”

“Um…maybe to provide a sense of mystery?” Charlie argued. “It’s this thing called letting the reader decide,”

“Well that’s bullshit!”

“I always thought it was beautiful, artistically I mean.” Willa offered, ignoring Charlie and Terry, who were now exchanging challenging smiles. “The Keepers didn’t know what would become of them after they got on that carousel, so we don’t get to know either. It makes the end of the story haunting, but gorgeous at the same time, and it makes you connected to the characters, because it keeps the mystery alive. They could remember, but they could not, and we’ll never know, so it’s both.”

“Like Schrodinger’s Cat,” Dell added.

“Exactly,” Willa said brightly, a warm smile on her face.

Their eyes locked for a few moments, like they were in awe of each other, and, as it always was when the two of them talked, they became the only ones in the room, only now, it was stronger than it had ever appeared to be. To watch them was like looking at people in another room through a pane of glass. Something had happened between them, a realization that neither of them was voicing.

“Not to end a perfectly nice conversation,” Terry said, breaking the silence and calling Willa and Dell back to the room. “But didn’t we come here to talk shop, come up with a plan to figure out what’s happening in the parks?”

Everyone fell silent, and their eyes widened. Finn chuckled. It had only become clear now that they had veered off topic. These people that were strangers not a week ago had become so easy to talk to, so easy to lose track of time with, to _waste_ time with. He’d invited them with the intention of doing nothing but business, but he’d quickly come to realize that he liked having them over just to be spending time with them. For all the protesting he’d done of his parents’ pleas for him to get more friends, he really didn’t mind having this bunch around. More than that, he actually enjoyed it.

“Okay,” Willa said, having quickly moved on to the task at hand. “Dell and I were texting back and forth all day today, and we managed to compile a good amount of information on the ride mishaps.”

She turned to her bag and pulled out a packet of papers, each of them covered with bullet-points, charts and graphs.

“These are the rides that have had ‘mishap’ reports more than three times,” she explained, pointing to a list on the front page. “I excluded any one with less times than that to remove possible outliers, but I’ve still noted them here.”

She flipped to the next page in the packet and indicated another list of attractions.

“ _This_ ,” she said, turning to the next page. “Is a Venn Diagram of possible ‘problem’ attractions. On the left is rides that are in the books, on the right, rides that are on that first list, and in the middle, ones that are both. As you can see, most of the rides fall into the middle category, which is interesting.”

“Of course,” Dell added, “There is the possibility of the data being skewed by people who, like Terry suggested when we first met, think they are seeing something because of their love of the series. So that brings us to these graphs,”

Willa and Dell flipped to the next page, and the eyes of everyone else in the room flitted back and forth between the two, trying desperately to keep up. They were going too fast, but there was no point in trying to slow them down. They were in their own little dance now, and it could be seen in how they looked at each other as they talked, like they were waiting for the other to make a mistake they could correct, but at the same time wanting for the other to outsmart them, just to see that they could.

“This graph here shows the amount of ride mishap reports across the years,” Dell explained, pointing out the different line graphs on the new page. “And _this_ graph show the popularity of the series over the same number of years, based on the number of posts about it on various social media platforms.”

“As you can see, they have a positive correlation.” Willa said.

She looked around at the group to see blank stares blinking back at her, except for Dell, indicating that they didn’t understand. She sighed before explain herself in plainer terms.

“As the popularity of the series increases, so does the amount of ride mishap reports.”

“And in the same percentages too,” Dell added.

“Now _that_ of course supports _Terry_ ’s theory,” Willa continued.

“Ha!” Terry exclaimed. “So we can be done with this!”

This earned him a few judging looks, and he immediately backed down, quickly realizing that he wasn’t so sure he meant it.

“Not quite,” Dell said. “If you look towards the end of the first graph, you’ll see that in the past year, ride mishaps have increased much more than they had from year to year in the past, while the series’ popularity has remained fairly steady in the past year.”

Willa and Dell looked at the group again, expecting to see shock in their faces, but everyone still seemed confused, not following their line of thinking.

“So…” Willa said slowly. “The past year’s ride mishaps could have _nothing_ to do with people reading the series.”

Still no response.

“So we furthered our research,” Dell said, as Willa turned the page to their packet again. “And we found in the cases that we could, that in past, the percentage of those making ride mishap reports who were also fans of the series was about 75 percent. In the past year, it’s about 45 percent.”

The rest of the group seemed to be following more clearly than they had before, but still looked confused.

“So…” Terry said.

Dell sighed, finally giving in.

“The ride mishaps in the past year, which are much more significant than they are in the past, have little to do with hallucinations of _Kingdom Keepers_ fans.”

That explanation finally sent everyone into a state of shock, fear silencing and freezing them. Dell, however, smiled brightly at Willa, and she smiled back. She was filled with a sense of joy and pride, feeling like they’d accomplished something that was all their own. She remembered how fun it had been that day, calculating facts and figures with someone else who found it just as fascinating as she did. That fun returned now when recounting the research, and being the only ones in the room who understood the math filled her stomach with butterflies in a way that she strangely enjoyed.

“So that’s it?” Finn said flatly. “Something is going on?”

“Probably,” Dell answered. “There _is_ still the possibility that people are just seeing things, but this is enough evidence, I think, to justify heading to the parks to check things out.”

A silence fell over the group. They couldn’t run from it any longer; if what Dell and Willa were saying was true, they couldn’t ignore it. They were genuinely investigating an idea that, not five days ago, they’d all thought to be pure lunacy. Now though it was something different.

 “So where do we start?” Charlie asked. “What ride? There are so many possibilities.”

“Well,” Willa said. “Our research indicates that _It’s a Small World_ has significantly more reports than any other ride, but, since Casey already had an experience there, and since it also had the highest percentage of Kingdom Keeper fans being the reporters, I say we check out the second most reported ride.”

“And that is?” Terry asked.

Willa and Dell said nothing for a moment, and exchanged a nervous look before Dell spoke.

“The Haunted Mansion.”

The announcement silenced the room again, as everyone looked at each other the way Willa and Dell had a moment ago. Though none of them would admit it, they were terrified.

* * *

 

            About an hour later, after finishing the cookies and watching one too many Vine compilations on Youtube, Finn and the others stood outside his house, ready to say goodbye.

“So we’ll meet at Magic Kingdom on Friday,” Finn said, reviewing what they’d agreed upon inside. “Casey will use her Dad’s passes to get Terry, Amanda and Jess in, the rest of us will use our own annual passes.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Alright,” Finn said. “Then I’ll see you then.”

Everyone nodded, feeling like their goodbyes should be more, but not sure of how to achieve that without feeling like they’d gone too far.

While Charlie and Terry had exchanged an awkward goodbye and gone their separate ways, Dell had approached Willa, who was digging through her bag to look for her headphones.

“Hey,” he said, startling her slightly, but earning a smile once she saw it was him.

“I saw that you walked here,” he stuttered. “And…I did too…and my house is just a couple blocks past yours and I was wondering if maybe….you wanna walk together?”

Dell winced as soon as he finished the question, expecting rejection, fearing he’d been too forward and made Willa uncomfortable, because she already looked confused. He didn’t mean anything by it, really, he just genuinely thought it might be nice to walk together. He’d come to enjoy her company, even just as a friend. As he was about to apologize and bolt in the other direction, Willa smiled at him.

“I’d like that,” she said.

His face lit up, which made her blush, and she turned to stand next to him before they walked off together.

That left Finn alone with Amanda and Jess, all three of whom weren’t saying anything, but weren’t moving either.

“Your Mom really knows how to entertain,” Amanda said, hoping to maybe lighten the tension.

“Yeah well you might not wanna come over all that often,” Finn joked. “The freshman 15 has nothing on the Alice Whitman effect.”

Finn patted his stomach, and Amanda began to laugh, light and free and easy. Finn watched her, her face lighting up in a carefree smile, and, though he didn’t quite understand it, just looking at her, he found he couldn’t help but want to smile too. Their eyes met, his heart raced, and he felt his face go hot, and he was almost a bit dizzy.

Jess looked back and forth between them, not sure what to expect now that she knew what she knew from her dreams. Looking at their expressions, she was sure of it: these were the same people she’d seen in her visions, holding each other and smiling like there wasn’t a single ounce of badness in the world. The only question was…how did she get them to realize it?

 “So I guess we’ll see you on Friday,” Jess said, after a few more moments of no one saying anything.

“Friday,” Finn stuttered. “Right. I’m gonna get the tickets from Casey, so you can text me when you’re leaving and I’ll meet you outside the gate with your tickets to get you in.”

“Okay,” Jess said.

Amanda simply blushed, and looked away from Finn shyly, only to find she was unable to turn away from him.

 “Bye,” Finn said, trying at a smile.

“See ya,” she replied, her voice so quiet that it could barely be heard.

Finn nodded, then looked as if he was going to say something else, but eventually turned and went back into the house. Amanda immediately started walking away, so much so that Jess had to jog to keep up with her.

“Look at you little miss flirt!” she said, patting her sister on the arm teasingly. “I didn’t know you had it in you!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Amanda lied.  

“Oh _come on_ ,” Jess sighed. “We may have grown up in complete isolation, but I’m not _that_ naïve. You _like_ him.”

“So what if I do?”

Amanda sounded nervous, but Jess stopped walking, and raised her eyebrows playfully. Amanda crossed her arms and stared her down for a few seconds, but, eventually, the two girls burst into hysterical laughter.

For that brief shining moment, Jess felt like they were little girls again, sitting in their room in the Barracks, dreaming of what their lives would be like once they finally managed to escape. For that moment, it was like they’d returned to the time before the world had hardened them, when everything was carefree, even in the face of tragedy. For a moment, they were the best of friends, true sisters, able to quickly bring out a smile in the other no matter what.

For a second, Jess frowned; things hadn’t been like this in so long. But then she turned to watch Amanda. As they walked, her step was lighter, and the softest of smiles was on her face, along with rosy blush that filled her cheeks. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her sister look like that.

She thought back to the dreams and visions she’d had in the past few days, looked back to Finn’s house, and looked at Amanda again. Her cheeks crept up into a grin of her own. Maybe there was hope after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FRIENDSHIIIIPPP. Things are getting exciting for the Keepers now, and I think you all will REALLY like Sunday's chapter. I'm so excited to share it with you! Thanks to everyone reading for all your love and support, and stay magical Keepers!


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! This might be my favorite chapter of the fic so far! I had such a huge amount of fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy it too!

It was late in the evening the next day. Terry was working on painting a piece behind the counter at Crazy Glaze. The place was empty, despite being open, and low-volume music streamed from a nearby Bluetooth speaker connected to his phone. He’d always felt at peace when he was alone like this, doing nothing but working on his art. His life was stressful, for sure, but for all the things that were wrong, he at least got to spend most of his time doing what he loved.

Just then, the bell above the door, which was supposed to indicate a customer, rang. He shut off his music and looked up to see Charlie standing in the doorway, clutching her purse and smiling shyly.

“Hey!” he said, startled, quickly rushing to take off his apron and put down his paints.

“Hi,” she replied, not yet fully stepping into the room.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Charlie, apparently taking his question as an invitation in, smiled and skipped over to the counter, all the while reaching into her purse. He chuckled as he watched her; since the last time she was here, she hadn’t really seemed like herself, but now, approaching him with a bounce in her step and a bright smile on her cheeks, she looked just like the girl he’d always seen walking the halls of their high-school: eternally cheery, and always walking around like she could instantly take command of any room. It always used to annoy him, but now, something had changed. He found it…intriguing.

“The parents of one of the kids I coach own this local movie-theatre in Winter Park, and the other day they gifted me with this voucher for two free tickets,” she explained. “I thought it might be fun to go see something together!”

She held up two movie tickets with an excited giggle.

“Oh,” Terry said, startling.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing…” he stuttered, grabbing the counter as he felt his balance trying to go out from under him. “Why me?”

“Well I don’t know,” Charlie sighed, hardly making eye contact as she held onto the counter and swayed back and forth. “My Mom, bless her, has been begging me to get out and do something with someone other than her, and I don’t really talk to my high-school friends anymore, and all of my friends from college live in different states, so you guys are pretty much all I have right now. Finn would spend the entire time talking about the mission, and Willa or Dell would start confusing me talking about some kind of random subject I know nothing about, and those other girls, Jess and Amanda, I don’t even know what’s going on with them. But _you_ just…I don’t know you’re….you just…I feel like we could have a nice time together okay?”

Terry said nothing, and Charlie looked at the floor with a straight face, feeling vulnerable. She’d never spoken so unclearly like that, never rambled, or stuttered or anything. She wanted to curse at something for the notion that it was happening to her now of all times, and she barely breathed at the thought that she might have just completely turned Terry off from ever speaking to her again.

She looked up at him, and his expression was still blank, until, after a moment, it melted into a goofy smile, and Charlie found herself smiling back. Then, without saying anything else, the two of them started laughing, and the tension in the room dissolved.

“So it’s not just me then?” he asked. “You and I are the only normal people in that group.”

“Oh my _God_!” Charlie, exclaimed, sitting down on the stool opposite him now. “Every time we go to Finn’s house I feel like I’ve stepped into _The Breakfast Club_!”

“Right?!” Terry exclaimed. “You’ve got Amanda who’s flirting with Finn one second and then refusing to look at anyone the next, and Willa and Dell covering their faces every-time they talk, not to mention the fact that there’s some weird will-they-won’t-they thing going on there-I didn’t even think that happened in real life!”

“Oh!” Charlie added, practically jumping out of her seat. “Let’s not forget Finn: Mr. let’s all bake a rainbow cake and be best friends.”

“Exactly! And I’m sorry….but are we the only ones who still see _anything_ strange about this whole ordeal at _all_? Doesn’t anyone else even have a healthy amount of doubt?”

“It’s like you read my mind!” Charlie sighed.

The two laughed loudly until they realized how emphatic their conversation had become, and they heard their laughs slowly die down in a stream of muffled chuckles. Terry watched Charlie with wide eyes as she looked away from him, blushing and pushing her hair behind her ear. He’d never have thought that they were this similar, or that talking to her could be this easy and freeing. He didn’t even know that talking to _anyone_ could be this easy.

“So,” Charlie said determinately. “How about that movie then? Come on; let’s go! We gotta get all our complaining out before we see everyone again tomorrow.”

Terry sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“What is it?” Charlie asked, remembering what had happened the other day, and preparing herself to take more rejection without blowing up.

“I’d love to go out with you,” Terry said. “But like I told you the other day, I can’t close the shop early.”

“Oh,” Charlie said. “Well….then I’ll wait.”

“What?”

“I’ll wait! They have late movies, and besides, I don’t have anything else to do tonight. It’ll be fun! You can teach me about pottery and stuff!”

Terry started at her, as she sat upright in her seat with an excited look about her. He wasn’t sure how to respond. He’d never thought that anyone, least of all Charlene Turner, would want to spend time with him enough to wait for him to be free. He was so used to shoving himself into the sidelines, it was like he didn’t know what it was like to be considered important.

“So?” Charlie asked, and only then did he realize that he hadn’t spoken in a while.

“Um….yeah!” he stuttered, unsure if his nerves were coming from the shock, or from being around Charlie, or from a little bit of both. “You can stay if you want.”

“Great!” Charlie said, her biggest smile of the night so far lighting up her face.

The two exchanged smiles once more and as Terry watched her put down her bag and begin to settle in, a sense of joy overcame him. He couldn’t believe that this was the same girl he’d gone to high-school with, or even the same girl that he’d spoken to five days ago.

He found his mind focused on one of the lessons his Aunt had repeated to him many times over the years, one that he’d begun to ignore more and more as he’d gotten older: _you always have to give people the opportunity to be seen in a new light; the person you’ve decided you hate most in the world might be your best friend, and you’d never know if you didn’t stop seeing them like you hated them_. He looked to Charlie, and the words made sense for the first time in his young life.

* * *

 

            A half hour later, Terry sat in front of the shop’s pottery wheel, Charlie standing close by and watching him. The wheel spun quickly, and his hands ran softly over the clay, moving just slightly enough to allow it to shape into a vase.

“You’re so incredible at this,” she said. “I can’t imagine how you do it. I’d be a disaster.”

“Ah come on,” Terry teased. “I bet you’d be a natural.”

“I doubt it,” Charlie said shyly.

“Come here,” Terry said. “I’ll teach you.”

 He scooted back on his stool then patted the small space left in front of him. Charlie eyed him for a moment, questioning him with a raised eyebrow. He simply shrugged, as if to ask: _why not_? Unable to help it, she laughed, and took the place on the stool in front of him.

When she first sat down, she was too busy laughing at the notion that she was doing it to hesitate. Once she’d been in the seat for a moment however, it suddenly dawned on her how close they were sitting. She gulped, falling silent.

Terry’s arms came to wrap around her, and she jumped, startled. He pulled back and she laughed nervously.

“Relax,” he assured her. “I’m just gonna show you how to move your hands on the clay.”

“Oh,” she muttered. “Okay.”

“Okay?” he repeated, making sure she was ready.

Suddenly unable to speak, she simply nodded, holding her breath. Terry’s arms came around her again, slowly this time, and eventually landing so that his hands were on top of hers. She exhaled then, and even started to smile. His hands were calloused, and rough in patches from dried clay, but he was ever so gentle as he guided her to place her hands on the slab of wet clay in front of her.

“Okay,” he said. “Now press that foot pedal in front of you: really gently, like you were just starting a car; ease into it.”

Charlie did as he said, and she startled with a giggle as she found the wheel beginning to spin. The clay was cold and wet, and it tickled as it spun across her palms. From behind, listening to her little laugh of surprise, Terry smiled.

“Now you start pushing the clay the way you want it to move,” he explained.

He grabbed her hands again to move them, and slowly led her to trace out the same patterns he normally would while making a vase. He leaned forward as he molded, and she didn’t say anything in protest. After a while, Charlie turned to look at him, releasing the pedal, and he felt the wheel slow. Still though, neither of them found themselves moving from their current position.

“This is fun,” she whispered, smiling. “You’re a good teacher.”

“Well thank you,” he replied, slightly teasing.

“I don’t ever think I’ll be as good as you though,”

“Eh, with enough practice, you can get it.”

She smiled at this, and dipped her head shyly. The mention of “practice” made her think about doing this again, and she blushed as she realized that she liked the idea. She felt warm, sitting with him like this, and she felt something she wasn’t sure she’d ever fully felt with a guy before: protected.

Terry looked into Charlie’s green eyes, and he saw something in them he’d never expected to see from anyone. She looked like she was interested in him, and not necessarily in a romantic way; she looked at him like she was actually willing to _see_ him. When he looked at her and saw her smile, he couldn’t help but laugh, because the way she looked at him meant he knew that he was the reason for it, and he wasn’t used to being the reason someone smiled.

They were so lost in their smiles that Terry forgot his number one rule when working on the pottery wheel: keep your concentration. He noticed it just as it became too late to stop it: Charlie’s foot slipped, falling onto the pedal full force, and suddenly, without warning, the wheel was spinning at full speed.

Charlie screamed as clay hurdled towards them, splattering on their hair and foreheads.

“Take your foot off the pedal!” Terry shouted, though he could barely get the words out past his laughter.

“What?!”

“The pedal!” he repeated. “Take your foot of the pedal!”

Charlie did as he said, and Terry leaned them out of the clay’s line of fire while the wheel slowed down. Once he could hear they were in the clear, he lifted her back up to sitting, and they both laughed and panted, unable to believe what had just happened.

“Terry you didn’t tell me you were having company over!”

Terry and Charlie fell silent as a voice sounded over their laughs. All the noise must have drowned out the sounds of footsteps, because they looked to the back room-where the staircase to the Maybeck apartment was- to see Terry’s Aunt standing in the doorway.

Terry jumped up to standing, causing Charlie to nearly fall off the stool, but she soon found her balance and stood up to join him, both of them holding themselves in a tight stance.

“Aunt Bess,” Terry exclaimed. “What are you doing down here?”

“I heard screaming so I came down to make sure you were alright,” She looked between him and Charlie with the slightest smirk held back.

“This is um…” Terry stuttered. “This is my friend Charlene. She was uh…I was just showing her how to work the pottery wheel and she pressed the pedal too hard.”

Charlie shrugged overdramatically, as if to shame herself. Terry’s Aunt continued just to look between them, like she knew something they weren’t saying, but decided to keep it to herself.

“It’s nice to meet you Ms. Maybeck,” Charlie said nervously, stepping forward and holding out her hand.

“It’s Miss Morton actually,” Bess said, correcting her, and accepting her handshake. “But please dear, everyone around here calls me Jelly.”

Charlie nodded, still mortified, and stepped back to stand next to Terry.

“Terry doesn’t bring friends around all that often,” Jelly said. “How did you two meet?”

“We went to school together!” Charlie said quickly, before Terry could get the chance to answer. “We ran into each other in town the other day and recognized each other and so we just started talking!”

Jelly’s eyes widened then, like something had become clearer, and, watching her, Terry wanted to grab Charlie’s hand and bolt out of the room.

“ _Oh_ ,” she remarked. “ _Charlene_ : I know who you are now.”

Terry attempted to communicate something to his Aunt with only his eyes, begging, _pleading_ her not to go on, not to say what he knew she was going to, but either she didn’t see him, or she did, and she didn’t care.

“Terry used to talk about you,” she continued. “You two did that class project together once, didn’t you?”

Terry looked up to the ceiling in panic and clutched his fists, so sure that it was over, that everything that had happened this afternoon was ruined, and soon Charlie would be too freaked out to want anything to do with him ever again. To his surprise though, she answered his Aunt quickly.

“The dialogue in ASL,” she said. “I remember.”

He looked at her surprised, shocked that she would remember something so seemingly inconsequential, but she simply met him with a smile before turning back to his Aunt.

“Do you two have any fun plans tonight?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “Actually I came here to invite Terry to a movie,”

“But,” Terry quickly added, interrupting. “I told her that I couldn’t go because I had to stay and watch the shop,”

“ _So_ ,” Charlie rebutted, challenging him. “I told him that I would wait until he could go,”

“Well that’s awful silly!” Jelly exclaimed. “I’m here! You can go out now.”

Charlie smiled and gave a little clap, but Terry simply stepped forward and looked at Jelly concernedly.

“Aunt Bess,” he said seriously. “You know what the Doctor said you shouldn’t be…”

“I’m fine Terry, as you can see,” she insisted. “And besides, no one else is gonna come tonight; I don’t even know why we stay late this open. And even if they do, I’m not so weak that I can’t handle a few customers.”

Bess Maybeck saw her nephew looking at her pleadingly, and saw only the eyes of the scared little boy who would come to her when he had nightmares. He’d seen himself as an adult for so long now, but she knew better: he was still just a boy; he was still learning.

“Go have a good time,” she insisted, speaking to her nephew only, though she addressed both him and Charlene.

They’d always been able to communicate things to each other without saying a word, and when she returned his gaze now, she spoke to him until she was sure he had really heard it:

_Don’t worry about me_

Terry said nothing for a moment, and Charlie looked between him and Jelly, not knowing what to expect, but finally Terry spoke, stuttering all the while.

“I uh…” he said. “I better go change my shirt.”

Charlie smiled. She officially had a movie date.

“Show Charlene to the bathroom,” Jelly instructed him. “Let her get all cleaned up, and you make sure you clean up too.”

“Yes Aunt Bess,” Terry said, grabbing Charlie’s hand and leading her towards the apartment staircase. He laughed. He was nearly twenty-one years old, but his Aunt still knew how to command him like he was back in the fifth grade.

“And you’ll only be showing her the _bathroom_ Terrence,” Jelly added, shouting to them as they’d just about reached the staircase. Terry turned a bright shade of red, but Charlie covered her mouth to stifle laughter.

“Sorry about all of that,” he whispered to her, as he walked her through the back of the shop. “She doesn’t have a filter,”

“No,” she said, chuckling. “She’s sweet.”

“You can borrow one of my shirts,” Terry said shyly. “If you need…” he indicated the clay stains on the tank top she was currently wearing.

“That’d be great thanks,” she said nodding.

For as easy had things had been a few minutes ago, both of them had grown incredibly shy now, though there was a sweetness behind it, a shared realization that lead them to silencing smiles. They started up the staircase, and Charlie found herself thinking over what had just happened.

“You know,” she said. “You can keep calling me Charlene…if you want.”

“Oh,” he said. “I’m sorry about that I was just…it was formal with my Aunt and I was just thinking quickly and…”

“No,” Charlie said, stopping him. “No one’s ever really called me that since before high school. I like it.”

Terry stopped walking and looked at her with wide eyes, and she smiled. They stayed like that, frozen on the staircase for a few moments, until she reached out her clay covered hands in a threat to smear more on him, and he ran, starting a chase up the staircase that had them both returning to fits of laughter.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't planning for Charbeck to become THAT romantic THAT fast but I have no control over these characters most of the time so here we are! I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the love and support, and stay magical! See you on Thursday!


	16. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Keepers! I'm so sorry I've been gone for the past few weeks! I was in a production of Sister Act and I was super busy, and didn't really have any time to update or write anything. But I'm back now, well rested after the run, and I have another chapter for you! Hope you enjoy!

Earlier that day, Casey was on the phone with Finn. He’d just told her what their plans were at Magic Kingdom the next day, and she was on Cloud Nine. Her Dad had given her a few guest passes to use for her friends to get into the parks, and she had arranged to go to Finn’s house to give him some of them for Terry, Amanda and Jess.

“That’s great news!” she exclaimed. “Okay! I’ll see you later about the tickets!”

She hung up and fell back on her bed with a squeal, clutching her phone tightly to her chest. She couldn’t believe it had actually worked. She’d done it; she’d gotten all of them together and on the hunt for Overtakers. She was about to text Erin when she heard a voice from her bedroom doorway.

“What’s great news?”

She sat up quickly and saw her mother smiling at her, drying her hands with a dishtowel.

“Oh!” Casey stuttered. “Nothing! I just um…Dad and I are going to a movie after school tomorrow and he got tickets for the one I really wanted to see.”

Casey’s mother said nothing, but raised a suspicious eyebrow.

“And free popcorn!” Casey added, throwing her hands up in a light cheer.

A few more moments of silence passed, and Casey was beginning to panic that her cover was close to blown.

“What?” she asked, after her mother continued to do nothing but stare at her.

“Nothing,” her mother said. “You’ve just been seeming to spend a lot of time with your father lately.”

“So?” Casey snapped. “You’ve been on my case to spend more time with him, so I did.”

Now chalking up her mother’s actions to petty anger, Casey ignored her concern and turned to her phone, hoping it would signal her mother to leave.

“No,” her mother said. “I’m just…you look so much happier lately Case,”

“Well yeah,” she said. “I guess you were right,”

She got up and closed the door, feigning anger in order to get her mother out of her hair. As she sat back down on her bed and prepared to text Erin, her mother’s words stuck in her mind. She _was_ happier, now that she thought about it. Now, with this news from Finn, she could only see things going up.

Just then, her phone buzzed, and she looked down to see a text from Jess.

_Need to talk. Meet me outside your place at 1:30_

Casey held her breath and looked to the door that held her mother on the other side. Sneaking out of her house in the middle of the night would not be easy; her mother watched her like a hawk. But then she looked to the Kingdom Keepers books, displayed carefully and neatly on her shelf, and she remembered the risk the Keepers took to do what they knew was right. She knew, even though she’d never directly been told, what Jess could do, and she knew that if Jess needed to talk to her, it was probably serious. Not hesitating another second, she typed a reply.

_I’ll be there_

Nerves paralyzed her, and her stomach overflowed with butterflies, but then she took a deep breath, and a smile found its way onto her face. She was finally becoming a part of a real adventure, in the best way imaginable. All of her dreams were coming true.

* * *

 

            At exactly 1:28 in the morning, Casey snuck quietly down the hallway from her bedroom towards the front door, shuffling across the floor in socked feet, so as to make as little noise as humanly possible. She looked to the living room; as she’d expected, her mother had fallen asleep on the couch with the TV on, an event that had been fairly common since the divorce. She sighed; her mother was a light sleeper as it was; she’d have to be extra careful.

Quickly and quietly, she made her way to the front door, and carefully punched in the alarm code, knowing that if she slipped up even a bit, the system would let out a shrill beep, and she’d be blown. She watched the light on the system turn from red to green, then turned to the front door and turned the lock as slowly as she ever had. With only one task left to successfully get out of the house, she found herself simply staring at the doorknob. Sneaking out to go on a Kingdom Keepers adventure had seemed so exciting when she read the books or watched the movies, but now, seconds away from succeeding at the task herself, it was like she couldn’t do it.

She looked back to the living room at her mother again, sleeping soundly on the couch, thinking her daughter was safe in her bedroom. Things had been weird between them since the split with her father, and at times she felt incredibly distant from her, but in a way they were closer as well; it was just the two of them, and there was a special kind of bond there. Sneaking out now felt so wrong, like she was betraying her. She took a deep breath, and remembered the moments in the series when Liam felt just like this. Remembering what she was fighting for, she reached out, a towel in hand to protect her from static shock after the carpet shuffle, turned the door knob, and walked out of the house, closing the door gently behind her.

Jess was already waiting for her in front of the house, and another girl was standing with her. Casey walked up to them, trying to keep breathing slowly; her heart was pounding out of her chest. Whether it was with nerves or excitement, she did not know.

“Casey,” Jess said. “This is my friend Mattie.”

She introduced the other girl, who held up her hand in a shy wave.

“Wait a minute,” Casey said. She squinted her eyes, and looked Mattie up and down.

“You’re Caroline Dane!” she exclaimed. “From the books!”

“How on Earth did you do that?” Jess asked.

“Well she matches the physical description,” Casey explained. “And you introduced her as your friend. In the books, Jamie and Olivia only really have one friend outside of the Keepers-or at least only one who looks like Mattie- and that’s…”

“Caroline Dane,” Jess said, finishing Casey’s sentence. “I get it.”

“It’s such an honor to meet you!” Casey said, addressing Mattie now. She clasped her hands in front of her chest and rocked back and forth on her toes, her eyes wider than a kid’s in a candy store.

 “We really need to talk,” Jess said, trying to bring a seriousness back to Casey, who looked like she was about to burst.

“Right,” Casey replied. “Sorry. What’s up?”

She tried to come back to focus, but as she finished speaking, her voice practically squeaked, and the apples of her cheeks rose up to her ears.

“Is she always like this?” Mattie asked Jess, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

“You get used to it,” Jess replied flatly, before turning back to Casey.

“There’s been a um….” she looked to Mattie for advice on how to explain what they’d experienced, but received only a shoulder shrug in return. “Development. There’s been a development.”

 “You remembered?” she asked, her voice barely audible.

She’d stopped her bouncing now, and her jaw dropped, her eyes widening to such a huge size that Jess prepared to run out and catch her if she feinted.

“Not exactly,” Jess said.

She looked to Mattie nervously, scared of actually saying what she was about to. Though she knew Casey technically knew about her powers, they’d never discussed them explicitly, and this was the first time she’d ever been talking about them out loud to anyone but other Fairlies-the name given to kids with “special abilities” like her own. She trusted Casey, and she’d had no doubts about it on the way here, but now, actually faced with the task, it was like she had to force the words out of her mouth.

“I guess you know,” she started, stuttering. “Since you recognized Mattie, that she also has…”

“Powers,” Casey said, finishing the sentence. Jess nodded.

“Well, the other night, after all seven of us were at Finn’s house the first time, I um…I had a dream.”

She looked to Casey, expecting a reaction, but she had gone silent now, completely locked in on Jess’ story. Jess took a deep breath before continuing.

“It wasn’t like the dreams I usually have,” she explained. “It felt different. I don’t think I was dreaming the future. I think it was…”

“Memories,” Casey said excitedly. The squealing was starting to return. “You dreamt memories Jess! What did you see?”

“Hold on,” Jess said, cutting her off. She looked at Mattie again, who nodded at her.

“I called Mattie the next morning, because I didn’t know if Amanda was ready to hear this yet, and I knew Mattie’s ability might be able to help me out more. So we met up in Magic Kingdom, and she read the castle instead of reading a person, to see if maybe _the_ _castle_ had memories. I don’t know; it’s weird.”

She shied away and rubbed at her temple. Saying all of this out loud made it sound even more confusing than it did in her head. Casey said nothing, but simply turned to Mattie, expecting her to continue.

“Well, um…” Mattie stuttered, unsure of what to say. “I started to see something, but I didn’t exactly get the kind of reading that I normally would. Jess grabbed my arm, because I can get sort of dizzy during a reading, and, well…then I’m not sure what exactly happened.”

She looked at Jess, and the two girls went on to explain to Casey, in the best way that they could, what exactly they’d seen. Casey listened carefully, and there were a few moments of silence, her looking like she was thinking hard, before anyone spoke again.

“This is going to sound totally crazy,” Casey said. “But it sounds like….maybe your powers combined.”

“What?” Mattie exclaimed. She looked at Jess, who looked just as confused as she did.

“Well,” Casey explained, still trying to make sense of it all for herself. “Mattie, you can read minds, and Jess, you can see the future. So, if Mattie was touching the castle, and Jess, you were touching Mattie, then maybe you read the castle’s future: something that the castle _will_ have in its memory in the future.”

“I still can’t believe we’re talking about the castle like it’s a person,” Mattie sighed. She, like she’d seen in Jess before, was starting to get a headache.

“It makes sense that it could be though, ” Casey said. “It’s Disney; it’s _Cinderella Castle_ ; it could definitely have some kind of spirit or entity to it.”

Mattie clutched her head, but Jess went right on with the conversation, fascinated with it now. She locked eyes with Casey, and she felt her heart racing.

“And if it is,” she said. “You think it knows us, knows who we are? At Finn’s house the other day Willa was talking about us being on an alternate timeline or something. Could that be it?”

“Maybe,” Casey said. “Maybe it was trying to send you a message.”

Everyone went silent then, as they tried to process what they were just saying. Casey’s hands went to cover her mouth.

“I was right,” she whispered, her voice cracking and her eyes filling with tears.

Jess felt like the air around her had gotten ten pounds heavier, and she felt her throat dropping down to her stomach. She didn’t know what to think. The longer she knew it, the more she thought about it, the more paralyzing the thought became: there was another life out there for her that had led her to a different ending than the one she was living now. Whether that was good or bad, it didn’t matter; it was true, and Jess was the only one out of her new friends who knew it. Everything was about to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up! See you on Thursday, when I have a fun chapter ready for you! Until then, thanks for all your love and support, and stay magical!


	17. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I hope you enjoy today's chapter! I'm excited about where we are in the story!

The next day, it was a normal morning in the Magic Kingdom, the sun blazing, hundreds of families out and about, ready to start exciting days in their vacations. The group had decided to come in the morning, so as to experience the smallest crowds when trying to get on Haunted Mansion, and to have as much time as possible if need be. Besides, though no one said it outright, none of them really wanted to try this endeavor when it was dark out.

Charlene was the first of the group to arrive, and she was sitting at a table in front of _Casey’s Corner,_ where they’d decided to meet. Time seemed to drag on, and she tapped her feet and drummed her fingers against the table, trying to shake out her nerves. She probably hadn’t even been here that long, and normally she’d scroll through her phone to pass the time, but today all she could bring herself to do was people-watch.

Her life had been very strange as of late, and any time alone like this left her completely paralyzed thinking about it. How was it that she’d come to be here? How had it come so far that she was sitting in the Magic Kingdom waiting for a group of people she’d never thought she’d call friends (could she even call them her friends yet?) so that they could go investigate the Haunted Mansion for suspicious activity? It sounded so ludicrous that she almost wanted to think it was a dream, and yet, she’d tried pinching herself, and, no matter how much it didn’t seem possible, she was definitely awake.

And then of course, aside from everything else, there was Terry. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had as much fun out with a friend as she had with him out at the movies. Add that to what had happened while they were making pottery, and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of any of it.

Did she…like him? She’d had relationships before-flings and serious boyfriends-but this felt different than the rest of them. She didn’t know what this was. And while she knew that should make her happy, and that _he_ made her happy, she was scared. According to Casey, they were “Gary and Kim”; what if all of this was happening because their minds were forcing them to feel things they thought maybe they were supposed to? What if after all of this nonsense was over, and they all finally realized it was absolutely crazy, they drifted apart, and then one or both of them got hurt?

And then what if it wasn’t crazy? They were here today after all. What if Casey was right, and she was someone completely different from who she thought she was, and Terry was….

“Hey.”

She turned. As if fate had read her thoughts, there he was, walking towards the table she’d chosen: Terry.

Of course he’d be the first one here. She exhaled to shake off her nerves, and quickly put on a smile as he approached her.

“Hey!” she replied cheerfully. “I didn’t know if you were gonna make it!”

“Yeah well,” Terry sighed, putting his hands into his pockets. “After we got back last night, my Aunt sat me down for a talk, said she’s gonna run the store a few times a week. I tried to argue, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer so…here I am I guess.”

He seemed almost disheartened, or scared; Charlene couldn’t tell which.

“Well,” she said. “I’m glad you’re here.”

This earned a weak smile from Terry, and Charlene felt her heart start to race faster. A moment passed, and then, without thinking much, she let out a chuckle and moved forward to hug him. He followed her, but about halfway to the embrace, they realized what they were doing, and stopped in their tracks.

Charlene laughed again, silently praying that her face was not a bright shade of red, and held out her hand to shake his. He gave her a confused look, and she pulled it back, realizing that this did seem too formal, Eventually, they stood apart from each other, and settled on a simple head nod.

“This place really is amazing,” Terry said, looking around Main-street.

“You’ve never been?” Charlene asked, cringing immediately when she realized what she’d said.

“Nah,” Terry said. “My Aunt wanted to take me, but we could never afford it.”

If he’d been affected by Charlene’s brief insensitivity, he didn’t let it show, or at least she couldn’t hear it in his voice. She watched him nervously, waiting for him to prove that she’d ruined everything, but simply found him staring at the castle, and found herself blushing slightly; it was unexplainably wonderful to see his face so enchanted.

“It’s pretty isn’t it?” she asked, moving to stand behind him.

“Incredible,” he said, his eyes still not moving from the castle. “The architecture is stunning.”

They stayed like that, and, without knowing it, she’d started inching closer to him. Had it not been for the footsteps that came up from behind to interrupt them, her chin might’ve ended up on his shoulder.

“Hey!” a voice called, just like Terry’s before.

The pair turned, their trance now broken, to see Willa jogging up the path. Dell wasn’t far behind her, close enough even to make Charlene wonder if they’d come in together. Realizing, after a moment, how close they were, she and Terry took a step apart from each-other, before greeting the two new arrivals.

“Just us so far?” Willa asked, once she’d reached them.

“Whitman’s here too,” Terry explained. “I met him outside the gate so he could give me my ticket, but he’s still waiting for the other two.”

“Amanda and Jess.”

“Right.”

There were a few moments of awkward silence, but it was Dell who spoke up first.

“So did everyone read over the Haunted Mansion ride reports I sent you last night?” he asked. “So we know what we’re looking for?”

“Relax man,” Terry said, before Willa could jump in. “Not everyone feels the need to be so anal.”

Charlene pressed her lips together in order not to laugh to avoid sounding rude.

“I’m not _anal_. It’s called being prepared.” Dell said defensively, his nostrils flaring.

“Tomato, Tom-ah-to,” Terry shot back.

Charlene bit her lip harder now, and Willa looked at Dell nervously, unsure of what he’d say next, or how he was feeling. The two boys stared each other down, Terry’s eyebrow raised in a challenge. Dell looked a mix between angry and mortified.

Eventually, Charlene couldn’t hold it anymore. A breath escaped from out of her nostrils, and soon she was giggling, the laughs gaining more intensity each second. Terry flashed a proud smile, and soon Willa found she couldn’t help but laugh either. Before long, even Dell’s tension had released, and soon the four were lost in a fit of laughter, relenting how ridiculous the last moment had seemed.

“What’d I miss?” A new voice called.

Everyone turned to see Finn, Amanda and Jess standing behind him, looking around at Mainstreet in awe much like Terry had before: the first time anyone had seen them act any way but shy.

Finn’s arrival and question had somehow sparked more laughter, to the point where the group was now drawing the attention of some passer-byes, though they didn’t notice. It didn’t take too long for Finn to be laughing too, though he didn’t know why they even were in the first place.

In an instant, things had gone from awkward to just…easy: easier than anyone had ever expected them to be. With smiles on their faces, the group looked at each other as their laughter died down, waiting for someone to say something. Without a word, somehow six pairs of expectant eyes had landed on Finn.

“Oh!” he said, surprised at their seeming reliance on him. “Let’s uh…let’s head to Liberty Square I guess!”

Charlene threw her arms up in the air and cheered, like her team had just scored the winning touchdown at a football game, and Willa did the same, before the group ran off to the back of Liberty Square, laughing all the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What will the Keepers find at Haunted Mansion? See you on Sunday when more will be revealed! Until then, thanks for your continued love and support, and stay magical!


	18. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter is later than it would normally be. The Good Place has got me under it's spell at the moment. Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter, and I apologize in advance for what you're about to read.

About twenty minutes later, the would-be Keepers had reached the end of the line for The Haunted Mansion, and were entering the pre-show stretching room. The wait on line had been interesting to say the least. Willa and Dell let out a piece of ride trivia practically every thirty seconds-Dell about the technology, Willa about the ride’s history. It started out as good-natured fun, but eventually evolved into a constant attempt to one-up the other, causing the others to look at them with confusion and fear.

Terry had made multiple remarks about how he didn’t like haunted houses…until Charlie had started teasing him about being scared, at which time he shut up rather quickly. Still, every time they’d come across one of the queue’s special effects, he’d startle, before attempting to act as “macho” as possible, and Charlie would turn away to hide a fit of giggling.

Jess was in awe of everything she saw, having never been into the park past the castle, and kept her amazement as no secret. Where Terry would jump at the line’s toys and tricks, Jess would gasp, then laugh as her eyes widened and her jaw fell to the floor, before walking up to each element to test it herself. She was like an eight year old on their first trip to the Kingdom, appropriately, since she’d nearly knocked down a pack of actual eight year olds several times. Amanda said nothing, and kept a straight face, but every time Jess would squeal about a music-playing wall, or a screaming-tombstone, Finn would see the stars light up in Amanda’s eyes-stars she was so desperately trying to hide-and he couldn’t stop watching her.

Now, filing into the pre-show room, Finn looked around as he grew closer and closer to being packed like a sardine. The scene was typical: groups of teenagers-clearly Disney fans-packed together and cheering for the cult-favorite scene; kids crying, or clutching tightly to their parents; first timers looking around with awe. He felt a slight tremor go through him; he’d always been a little creeped out by this ride, though he’d never admit it. Now, with what was at stake, the fear seemed more realized, and somehow that scared him more than the ride itself. He felt something grab his arm, and he jumped, about to scream, before he looked over and saw Amanda holding on to him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he leaned in to whisper to her.

“It’s okay you know,” he said, teasing slightly. “You don’t have to be scared.”

Amanda jumped, as if she wasn’t expecting to see him next to her. Finn laughed, but Amanda furrowed her brow.

“I’m not scared,” she insisted.

“You grabbed my hand!”

“I thought you were Jess!”

“Well then why did you grab _Jess_ ’ hand?” Finn asked, smiling smugly. Amanda rolled her eyes.

“It’s a crowded room, and I wanted to make sure we all stayed together,” she said with a huff. “That’s all.”

Finn said nothing, but she could see in his smile how he didn’t believe her, how he was dying to say something, to make fun of her. She let go of him and crossed her arms.

“You know what?” she started, annoyed, but then, not having heard the commencing of the ride’s pre-show monologue, she startled as the room went suddenly off, and a scream alerted guests’ attention to the silhouette of a limp body hanging from a noose on the ceiling.

Her fear taking control over her rationality, she let out a yelp, and, being that he was the closest person to her, clutched tightly to Finn’s arm. With that, he looked over to her and his eyes widened.

“Just trying to stay with the group, huh?” he teased.

He chuckled and flashed her a smirk, and she blushed, pulling away from him.

As she looked away from Finn, Amanda wanted to be mad; everything in her told her she should be mad. He was making fun of her; he was being an asshole; he was being everything she’d always warned herself to stay away from, everything she’d always told herself would come to hurt her if she let anyone in. But then, she looked up at him, and he was smiling more gently now. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was a trace of actual concern in his gaze.

Their eyes met, and, for reasons that she couldn’t explain, something in her just wouldn’t let her be mad at him. A smile crept up her own cheeks, and she let out a soft chuckle, and watched as Finn’s smile grew. The pre-show ended, doors ahead of them opened, and the crowd surged forward into the next section of the queue. Amanda stepped closer to Finn so that their arms were slightly brushing, and, though she’d never admit it, she felt just a little bit safer.

* * *

 

            A short while later, the group was headed away from Haunted Mansion, down the path towards Fantasyland, laughing at a joke Terry had just cracked. The ride on Haunted Mansion had shown no signs of anything going wrong, and a lighthearted air had come over them. While some, mainly Dell, had argued that one ride was not enough to prove anything for or against their theories, and others, mainly Terry, had said that they were done with all this nonsense now, there was a general shared feeling of mirth. Now, though just a week ago they didn’t know each other at all, they looked like any other group of college friends walking through the park.

 

As they walked, Jess watched Finn and Amanda closely. They’d barely said a word to each other since their interaction in the pre-show room. However, as Jess had quickly noticed, they kept looking at each-other, often smiling, and the further they travelled, the closer they seemed to gravitate towards each other. Of course, she knew Amanda would never do anything about any of this, and it took all she had not to scream. Knowing what she knew, everything suddenly seemed to have much higher stakes.

“Okay,” Charlene proclaimed, stopping the group in front of Prince Charming’s Carousel. “So we didn’t die today, and I say that deserves a celebration! Who’s up for a round of Dole Whips?”

“It’s still breakfast time,” Willa said, chuckling.

“So? We’re in the Magic Kingdom! Food-rules don’t exist here,”

Willa was about to deliver some kind of sarcastic response, when Terry spoke up, looking confused.

“What’s a Dole Whip?” he asked.

At that moment, any arguments were forgotten, as all eyes, save for Jess and Amanda’s, were on Terry, and all their respective jaws were on the floor.

“That settles it,” Charlie proclaimed. “I don’t care what time it is; we need to get Terry a Dole Whip.”

“Sounds good to me,” Dell said.

“I’m no one to turn down Ice-Cream,” Willa added.

Smiles were exchanged, and the group had just started off excitedly towards Adventureland when Jess called out to stop them.

“We actually have to get to work soon,” she said, pointing to her and Amanda. “But maybe next time.”

They received a few sad glances, but eventually everyone waved them goodbye, and went right back to their excitement. It was only Finn who stopped, looking genuinely upset. Jess hung back slightly from him and Amanda, hoping that they wouldn’t notice.

“Aren’t you coming?” Willa asked Finn.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” he said, waving her forward. She nodded her head, then jogged to catch up with Dell.

Finn turned to Amanda, who was back to her usual shy stance and silence.

“Are you sure you can’t stay for one ice-cream?” he asked, trying to be lighthearted. “Dole Whips are pretty great.”

“We have to open today so…” Amanda didn’t finish her sentence, just rubbed at her arm and looked at the floor. Finn gave a head nod, and then both of them were silent again. Watching them, Jess was trying hard not to pull out all of her hair.

For a while it looked like no one was going to say anything, and Jess was about to interject herself, when, surprising everyone, Amanda spoke up first.

“I guess you can just text us when you guys figure out what we’re doing next,” she said. Then, realizing the revelation they’d just come to on the ride, added “ _If_ you decide to do anything next.”

She looked saddened then, and she still wouldn’t meet Finn’s eyes. The idea that all of this could be over suddenly made her realize just how much she’d gained.

“I’ll text you,” Finn said, with a soft smile, and Amanda smiled back, feeling lighter then. The idea of Finn keeping in touch with her, of being so sure of it, made her smile, and she couldn’t help it.

Amanda looked up, and their eyes met, and suddenly, it was like that first day at _Earl of Sandwich_ all over again. Despite the crowd around them, and the dozens of elements present to trigger his senses, Finn was focused only on Amanda. As soon as he looked at her it was like he was in a trance: like he was awake in a dream, but a kind of dream that he’d never had before. He wasn’t even aware of himself right now, just locked in on the thoughts in his head.

 He only realized what had happened when his trance was broken, the carousel starting up behind them, loudly blaring its signature style of music. Finn shook his head, suddenly coming to, and then he remembered where he was. Seeing Amanda standing across from him, and looking over at the carousel, he realized what had happened, and his heart sank down to his stomach with nerves and anticipation.

His eyes went back to Amanda, and again they didn’t move, but he listened to the carousel music carefully. Though there were no words, the tune was as clear as day, and Finn knew the lyrics well: _I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream_.

“That’s strange,” he said.

“What’s strange?” Amanda asked, and the stillness of her voice told him she was feeling the same thing he was.

“The music on the carousel,” he said, still not moving his eyes from her. “It’s the same thing…that day we met…in front of _Once Upon a Toy_ , the same song…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but he knew Amanda understood. Their faces should’ve been filled with fear, because Finn was terrified, and he felt like he might hurl all over the pavement at any second, but he couldn’t do anything but look at Amanda with awe. He looked at her eyes, and the lyrics of the song once again came to his mind.

_I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam_

A vague memory of a dream came to him suddenly, a dream he’d since forgotten about: like deja-vu, but not quite. He didn’t remember much, but Amanda’s face looked even more familiar than it had before: _she was in the dream_.

More and more things became clear to him, though he didn’t have an explanation for them. He knew her; he was sure of it, and not because they met last week, and not because of some book that he’d read. He’d met this girl before, a long time ago, and looking in her eyes somehow made him feel like he was right at home.

“Hey,” he said, not even sure he was in control of his actions anymore. “Do you maybe wanna….go for coffee or something some time? Just you and me?”

Amanda’s eyes widened as Finn looked at her sweetly. Her heart started to race then, and she was thrown into a state of panic. He was asking her out on a date. This boy in front of her was asking her out on a date.

Everything in her made her want to say yes. She wanted to say yes out of instinct, for everything she felt when she looked at him, but she didn’t need any of it to want to say yes either. She wanted to say yes for everything that had happened between them since they met, for everything that he did and said, and for the way that he looked at her, the way that he treated her. She wanted to say yes because no one made her feel as wonderful as he did.

Her face got hot, and she felt tears coming to her eyes that she tried desperately to hold back, because as she was about to accept, as the words were about to come out of her mouth, she remembered why she couldn’t. Suddenly sharp, painful memories came to her mind, of her parents, of friends she’d lost, of her days in the Barracks, of squatting in and old church with her sister until they were eighteen, spending their days trying not to be noticed by anyone. The world gave her pain: that’s all it ever did. If she tried to let this bit of happiness into it, she’d only get more pain in the end.

Finn looked at her, waiting for her to answer him. She could barely speak when she did.

“I…” she stuttered. “I don’t…”

“Oh,” Finn said solemnly, looking down.

“Finn it’s not you,” she insisted, reaching out for him now, but he pulled away.

“It’s okay,” he said, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore, not at all. “You don’t owe me an explanation.”

“Finn…” she tried again, but he simply gave her a head nod and walked off in the same direction that everyone else had.

Once he was gone, Amanda couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. As soon as Finn turned around, she’d felt her face getting hot, and tears falling down to soak her cheeks. This was her life. Once again, the universe had let her down.

Just then, Jess stepped in front of her, and crossed her arms with a huff.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.

Amanda looked at her sister for a moment, battling shock and anger.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

 “With Finn. You smile at him like crazy, joke with him when we’re all hanging out, look happier than I’ve maybe _ever_ seen you around him, and yet now you just brush him off.”

“So what?” Amanda shot back, violently wiping the tears from her eyes. She refused to give the universe the power to make her cry.

She tried to start walking towards the park’s exit, but Jess stood in her way, and wouldn’t let her pass. Amanda sighed and crossed her arms.

 “It’s clear you like him,” Jess said. “Don’t try to deny it; I know you better than anyone. Why aren’t you letting yourself act on it?”

“Because,” Amanda choked, trying desperately not to start crying again. “I can’t just let someone else into my life like that. You know it as well as I do: trust is just rust with…”

“With a ‘t’ used to disguise it; I know. You remind me every chance you get.” Jess sighed, stepping out of Amanda’s way and starting to walk away.

Now it was Amanda’s turn to stop her from moving forward.

“What the hell is your problem?” she exclaimed. “Why do you care so much about this?”

Jess waited for a moment. There were so many things she wanted to say, so many things that she couldn’t: I know for a fact now that Casey is right; both Mattie and I saw you and Finn together in visions; you’re making yourself miserable and opening yourself up to Finn might be an opportunity to finally be happy; _if we stay in isolation much longer we’re going to end up hating each other_. Deciding that she wasn’t ready for a life-changing fight just yet, she exhaled, and resigned to continue doing what she’d always done best: keeping a secret.

“Forget it,” she said. “Let’s just go home.”

Amanda stepped next to Jess again, and neither girl said a word to each other for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so sad Alexa play Once Upon a Dream! This hurt to write, so please don't hate me. Until Thursday then, thanks for all your love and support, and stay magical!


	19. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Keepers! Sorry this is a week late! This semester just started and I'm in 6 classes so it's crazy busy. Speaking of which, you may notice this is not my normal posting day, and you're right! Please take note that starting this chapter, I'm switching my posting schedule to WEDNESDAYS and Sundays. I have late classes on Thursdays and just never have the time to post. That being said, I'm super excited for this chapter, and I think you guys are gonna love it. Enjoy!

The next day, Dell was in the middle of feeding his cat when a knock sounded at his door. He stopped for a moment, confused. Hugo was the only person he’d ever really known well enough to have come around, and they’d barely spoken since high-school. His parents wouldn’t be back from work until after dinner, and besides, they had keys. He finished emptying the can of cat-food into the bowl on the floor before walking to the door.

Hesitantly, he opened the door without unlocking the chain to see who was standing outside. To his surprise, Willa peered at him through the crack and greeted him with a shy wave. He gave her a confused wave back before shutting the door and taking a deep breath.

 _What is she doing here?_ he thought. He hadn’t exactly prepared for her to show up on his doorstep when he woke up that morning.

Taking a moment to compose himself, he pulled down his shirt and ran a hand across his hair before turning back and opening the door.

“Hi!” Willa said cheerily.

“Hey,” he replied, his confusion evident in his voice.

“I just got off work and I was thinking maybe you’d want to get some lunch,”

“Oh,” Dell said.

There was an awkward silence as no one said anything, and Willa swiveled on her heels.

 _Say something you idiot,_ Dell thought to himself. _She wants to go to lunch!_

“Sorry,” Willa said, brushing her hair behind her ear. “I realize now this probably came off as totally weird. I’ll leave you to your day now,”

She started to leave, but Dell, his brain finally cooperating with the rest of his body, threw out a hand to stop her.

“No!” he yelled, before she could turn around.

“You’re fine,” he said. “I was just…I don’t know I….sorry.”

Willa chuckled and flashed him a shy smile. Just then. Willa gasped, her gaze switching to look down at Dell’s feet.

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed.

“What?” he asked, concerned, until he looked down and saw his cat standing there, having followed him out the door.

“You have a cat?” Willa squealed, her voice raising about two octaves in the process.

“Yeah,” Dell answered. “That’s Elvis,”

Before, he could say anything else, Willa was crouching down and picking up the cat by its stomach. Dell winced- Elvis was known to react unfavorably to strangers- but he simply sat still in Willa’s arms, his expression unchanged.

 _Of course_ , Dell thought. _The only thing you are more than mean is lazy_.

“Oh he’s so adorable!” Willa cooed, nuzzling Elvis’ fur while scratching his head and back.

“Demon cat,” Dell muttered.

“No!” Willa gasped. “He’s a big sweetheart.”

Smiling, she returned back to petting Elvis. Dell raised his eyebrows at her. Watching her in class and the school hallways, he’d never expected that she had a side like this. Looking up for a moment, she noticed his confusion and chuckled.

“I’m a double major in Bio and Environmental Science,” she explained, though she still paid more attention to the cat than to him. “I want to be a zoologist.”

“Oh!” Dell stuttered, surprised. “That’s…that’s really cool.”

Willa looked up at him and smiled shyly, and Dell felt a hot blush rushing to his cheeks. Before he could even process that, or accept it, Willa had turned Elvis around and started playing with his paws in an attempt to make it look like he was speaking.

“Hello Dell,” she said in a ridiculously fake deep voice. “Dell why don’t you like me? I have fluffy orange fur and I’m cute and fat. Love me Dell,”

Dell raised his eyebrow at Willa again, and the two burst into a fit of laughter.

“Why don’t you put mini-Satan down and we can head out,” Dell said.

Willa looked up suddenly, stopping petting Elvis for the first time since she had picked him up.

“You wanna go?” she asked.

“Yeah. It’ll be fun!”

“Okay,” Willa said, her voice switching back to the shy demeanor Dell was used to hearing.

“Let me just grab my wallet,”

Dell went back inside briefly, leaving the door partially open, and Willa let Elvis jump out of her arms, who promptly sprinted back into the house.

Willa couldn’t quite tell if the warmth she felt was coming from a sudden burst of sun, or from what had just occurred, but, despite lack of experience, she was pretty sure it was the latter. He was just so…sweet, and being around him made her understand what they were talking about in the movies when they said fireworks went off. She’d stopped believing feelings like that were real almost ten years ago.

Before her thoughts could take her any farther, Dell came back outside, and closed the door behind him.

“We can take my car,” he said, casually jogging down the path, expecting her to follow, like they’d done this a hundred times before.

“How’s Disney Springs?” he asked, not realizing that Willa was not walking with him anymore.

He turned to see her stopped, and staring at him in shock and confusion. She stayed like that for a moment, but soon her face melted into a grin.

“Sounds perfect,” she replied.

They got into the car and Dell was turning the key in the ignition when Willa started rambling a mile a minute.

“So I saw this thing on National Geographic yesterday that was so cool, I thought you’d find it interesting,” she said. “It was about bats and their form of hibernation-which is called torpor….oh I’ve never had a friend who would be interested in this kind of stuff before!”

The last part was said with a squeal, and Dell looked over at her to see her smiling, just as brightly as he always remembered seeing from his locker across the hall from hers. She seemed so happy, totally in her element, and he was reminded of how he felt when he was doing the things he loved the most.

He put the car into drive and pulled away from the curb, a warm smile finding its way across his face as Willa continued on about the documentary she’d been watching.

He had a feeling it was going to be a very good afternoon.

* * *

 

            Hours later, after lunch at _D-Luxe Burger_ and some scattered window shopping, Willa and Dell walked through Disney Springs, cups of gelato in hand. They were laughing, mid-conversation, with the topic at some point having somehow switched to embarrassing stories from braniac childhoods.

“No you didn’t!” Willa exclaimed, laughing with a mouth full of ice-cream.

“Oh yes,” Dell said. “Eighth grade Halloween party, and I come as….Albert Einstein.”

Willa laughed and covered her mouth, hoping that frozen flavored cream would not suddenly come spewing out of her nose.

“Oh come on!” Dell said, as Willa continued to laugh. “It’s not that bad! It was eighth grade, I was thirteen. What were you for Halloween in the eighth grade?”

“Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz,” Willa said.

With that, Dell shook his head, and rubbed his hand against the back of his hair.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I guess it was pretty bad. And I wonder why I had no friends,”

“Oh I’m sure it was great,” Willa said. “Too bad we didn’t go to the same school yet in eighth grade. I would’ve thought your costume was cool.”

“Well thank you for that,” Dell teased.

They both giggled just as the song on the area’s projected music track changed. The square was soon filled with the sounds of Ed Sheeran’s _Thinking Out Loud_.

_When your legs don’t work like they used to before,_

“Oh hey,” Dell exclaimed, stopping their stride.

“What?” Willa asked.

 _And I can’t sweep you off of your feet_ ,

“This was our Prom song wasn’t it?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know,” Willa said softly. “I uh…I didn’t go to Prom.”

_Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?_

As quickly as Willa had opened up before, her stance closed off again, almost instantly. She looked down at her cup and began to stir twirls into her gelato with the tip of her spoon.

“You didn’t?” Philby exclaimed.

_Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?_

“No, it just didn’t seem like my thing you know? I didn’t really have any close friends to go with and I wasn’t gonna dance by myself so I just…stayed home and studied for finals,”

There was a silence for a few moments, and Dell, sensing Willa’s discomfort, spoke-up, his voice now quiet and reserved too.

“Well, my Mom forced me to go,” he said. “And Hugo. He dragged me there by my hair and then left me sitting in the corner while he sucked face with his girlfriend all night,”

Willa managed a weak smile. She didn’t enjoy being vulnerable, especially not now, but Dell seemed to find the ways to make it just a little bit easier.

 “I guess it’s uh…it’s too bad we didn’t know,” she stuttered. “That we were both…we could’ve gone together.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Dell said quietly, and there was silence again.

 _I almost asked you_ , Dell thought, but didn’t dare say it out loud.

_I’m thinkin’ ‘bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways, maybe just the touch of a hand_

Dell stood silent as a million questions ran through his head, questions he hadn’t considered since he was in high-school. Should he have asked her? Would she have said yes? Could he have had one of the magical proms that people write about in movies?  Maybe it was from those thoughts that the random bout of courage to do what he did next came over him.

“Come on,” he said, grabbing Willa’s wrist and walking to a nearby table. He put his gelato down, and took hers to do the same.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.

_Me I fall in love with you every single day, and I just wanna tell you I am_

“Well neither of us got to have our Prom dance,” Dell explained. “So let’s have one!”

He took Willa by the hands and led her over to a nearby open space close to the table. Willa felt her breathing hasten. She’d never been one to intentionally draw any attention to herself in public, and that was certainly what Dell was leading them into doing right now. He was grinning like an idiot as she looked at him, but she just felt her body temperature rising 20 degrees.

“What’s wrong?” Dell asked.

Willa was quiet and pointedly looking at the floor.

“ _This_ is why I didn’t go to Prom,” she muttered.

_Take me into your lovin’ arms_

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone’s gonna be looking!”

“So?”

Dell smiled, but Willa didn’t seem to be changing her mind.

“Look,” Dell said, approaching Willa more gently. “I know what you’re saying, and normally I agree, but…we’re having fun right? Even if people were judging us…what does it matter?”

Dell was well aware of the fact that the things he was saying right now were completely ridiculous considering how he usually behaved. Normally, he was content to be by himself and let the world pass him by, definitely not needing to do anything crazy enough to cause a scene. But something about Willa made him excited, made him want to try new things and show the world all the joy that he felt when he was around her.

Dell’s smirk was huge and sweet, and somehow, when Willa looked up at him, a little bit of the fear she felt started to wash away. He made her feel comfortable and safe, and watching him smile made her want to smile with him, and slowly, that want became greater than a fear of people looking at her. Smiling shyly, she draped her arms around his neck, and a look of amazement crossed his face as his slipped around her waist.

_Im thinkin’ out loud that maybe we found love right where we are._

They swayed back and forth slowly, close to each-other now and silent. As quickly as this had seemed like a good idea, Dell realized, it had just as quickly become terrifying. They were inches apart now, close enough to feel each other’s breathing, and it seemed like there was no going back. Being this close to Willa, something ignited in him, and that was scary. Willa was the girl he’d spent four years just watching in the hallways; Willa was the girl that as he’d gotten older he told himself he’d only ever liked an imaginary version of; Now, Willa was the girl that made him feel all the things he always thought she would, even though she was nothing he’d ever expected.

“Can I say something?” Willa said quietly, after a moment.

“What’s wrong?” Dell asked, quickly worried that he’d pushed something too far.

 “Nothing,” she stuttered. “Just that um…I had fun today.”

“Oh….well…well that’s good. I…I had fun too.”

Willa blushed with a tiny smile, biting her bottom lip and looking at the floor.

“You’re…you’re really easy to talk to,” she said, continuing. “I’ve uh…never met someone so easy to talk to before.”

“You probably wouldn’t say that if you hadn’t just met me,” he said bluntly, then immediately regretted it, as he watched Willa’s eyes grow slightly more solemn.

 _She’s trying to compliment you jackass_ he thought, cursing himself internally.

 “I just mean…” he started, before stopping to realize that what he was planning would probably come out wrong again.

For as long as he could remember, no one had wanted to talk to him for very long, not after they’d had one conversation with him. His first roommate in school had even gone so far as to use the word exhausting. It was a feeling he was familiar with to the point of expecting it: ramblings at the dinner table, rants about class material during lunch, all to realize halfway through that the other person wasn’t actually listening. Suddenly though, it dawned on him that all afternoon he’d been doing those things, and not once had Willa made him feel like she wasn’t listening. In fact, she acted just the same as him.

“Thank you,” he said. “You’re easy to talk to too.”

Willa smiled again, though shyly, and Dell breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he wasn’t such a failure at this after all.

_Cause honey your soul could never grow old its evergreen_

 “I’m really glad we reconnected,” Willa said wistfully. “No matter how crazy the circumstances were.”

“I’m glad too,” Dell said.

They were looking right at each other now, and any awkwardness that came when they’d first started dancing had dissolved. If his sixteen year old self could have seen this, he’d have passed out.

_And baby your smile’s forever in my mind and memory_

Willa’s attention was completely on Dell now. Their eyes were locked. There was a wistful kind of smile upon her face, and her eyes looked like they were studying him.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “I just….really like hanging out with you.”

The last part was half-whispered, like she was realizing it herself, rather than saying it to him.

“Because I’m easy to talk to?” Dell teased.

A million things ran through Willa’s mind, a million ways to answer his question: because you’re smart, because you’re funny, because you’re patient, because you think like me, because I’ve never felt so understood before… _because you know Schrodinger’s Cat_. She knew she couldn’t say any of it though, not without taking the conversation somewhere she wasn’t ready for it to go, and so instead she settled on returning his joke.

“Because you’re easy to talk to,” she said, laughing slightly.

Silence fell over them again, and their gazes darted towards the floor.

_People fall in love in mysterious ways, maybe it’s all part of a plan_

Seconds past, and no one said a word, until finally, it was Willa who spoke again.

“You know it really is a shame,” she said, her voice soft now, and cracking. “that we never talked to each other before. High school was so lonely; it would’ve been nice to have a friend who just…got it.”

“Yeah,” Philby replied, his voice shaking just as much as hers. “A friend,”

“A friend,” Willa repeated.

They looked up at each other and their eyes met again, more directly than they had all day. The ignition Dell had felt before, the warmth, had only grown stronger now. A lump in his throat, the size of a grapefruit, seemed to make it impossible to breathe, and his mouth went completely dry.

Willa felt like her legs were going to give out from underneath her at any moment. Little sparks of electricity danced around her stomach, and travelled up to make the thoughts in her head an unclear, inarticulate blur. All combined, every part of her body seemed to be working together to set of some kind of alarm bells, telling her to run, to jump ship and swim away and never look back…and yet her feet stayed glued to the floor.

Their eyes stayed locked, and the music just continued to play over them, and a million sounds were coming from the hustle of the marketplace, but the music was all Willa heard, and still everything sounded like it was underwater. Second by second, she was pulled further down, and the sounds got even more muffled. The sparks increased. The alarm bells got louder. Deeper, deeper. Louder. Stronger. Deeper. Stronger. Deeper. Deeper. Deeper…

And then she couldn’t take it anymore. Half-planned, half by-instinct, she pushed back, and the moment was gone. The current shut off; the alarm bells went silent; she was safe and breathing back on the surface; everything around her slowly came back into focus.

“It’s um…it’s getting late,” she muttered quietly. “I told my parents I’d be home for dinner.”

“Yeah,” Dell replied, and in his voice Willa could hear him coming to shore, and she knew he’d been pulled deep too.

A few moments passed, and then he spoke again.

“Come on,” he said, picking up their ice-creams and returning hers. “I’ll drive you home,”

They walked through Disney Springs to the parking lot without another word. As they went, Willa watched him, and thought about what had just happened, and as time went on, her panic only seemed to increase, because as time went on, getting pulled down deeper from the shore didn’t seem like it had been so bad, and the idea crossed her mind that maybe the alarm bells weren’t signaling a _warning_ after all, and she didn’t know what to do with that.

She’d based her whole life on being lonely, on finding the ways to make her life fit into the world so that she’d finally be comfortable. Her life was meticulous, and careful, and inside the lines, and planned down to the tee; now, a wrench had just been thrown in, and the scariest part was that she thought she might just like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm well aware that Thinking Out Loud came out too late for it to be Willa and Philby's prom song, and that probably would've actually been All of Me, but the song was too perfect, so I just went with it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for your love and support and I'll see you on Sunday! Stay magical!


	20. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey keepers! Sorry I missed an update again! As usual, things have been super busy around here. Anyway, today's chapter is all about the changes the Keepers re seeing in their lives. Hope you enjoy!

It was late Monday evening, and Charlie was finishing up the cheerleading class that she coached at the local elementary school during the summer. The kids had just finished running their current routine one last time, and their parents were standing behind her, waiting to pick them up.  Smiling, she clapped her hands to bring them all to attention.

“Alright!” she shouted. “Great work today! Practice that, and I’ll see you on Wednesday!”

The kids gave a little cheer and ran past her grabbing their bags, and thanking her as they greeted their parents. She watched them all go, smiling and waving as they got into their cars. She really did love this job. Once they were all gone, she turned around, stared at the empty soccer field, and let out a content sigh, a huge smile coming onto her face. She may have loved coaching, but this was her time now-the ten minutes in between when she finished, and when she had to leave to let the soccer team start their practice.

Taking a deep breath, she took off at a run, and practiced one of her aerials. Her heart soared as she took off into the air, and she felt the wind smacking at her face as she flipped around in the air. Nothing was more freeing than this. If there was anything defined her, any one thing that she loved more than anything else: it was this.

She landed in perfect position, bending her knees, then throwing her hands into the air as she stood up straight, still repeating the instincts she’d had from old gymnastics competitions. She smiled and brushed stray hairs out of her eyes. She was getting into position to go again, when she heard clapping behind her.

Startling, she turned around to see Terry, smiling and clapping slowly. She put her hand on her hip and chuckled.

“What are you doing here?!” she asked excitedly, wiping sweat from her brow.

“Well, ever since your little _stunt_ the other night, my Aunt’s been insisting that I get out of the house more,” he said.

Charlene let out a little giggle, and a slight blush came to her cheeks.

“And when we were talking last night, you told me when you were going to be at practice,” Terry continued. “So I thought I’d come by when you were done and see if you wanted to like..catch an early dinner...or something.”

Terry shoved his hands into his pockets and quickly looked at the floor, rocking back and forth on his feet. Charlene laughed and bit her lip in response. He was cute when he was nervous.

“So this dinner,” she teased, with Terry still not looking at her. “Is this like a date?”

With that, Terry’s gaze shot up, and his face froze into practical stone, his eyes wide and his jaw slightly dropped. He was silent for a moment, and then he started stuttering, fumbling for the right answer. He had no idea what to say. Was she implying that she _wanted_ it to be a date? Was she implying that she _didn’t_ want it to be a date? Had _he_ even _meant_ for it to be a date?

“I...I uh…” he started, until he saw that Charlene was smirking at him and holding back hysterical laughter.

“Sorry,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m uh….kinda new to this stuff.”

Charlene’s laughter died down as she looked Terry up and down. He seemed suddenly vulnerable, and a warmth came over her that she couldn’t quite place. It seemed to come up every time she was around him now, and it only grew stronger each time. Now, feeling strangely humbled, her stomach seemed to be ten pounds heavier, and weighing down on her gut. Her face was hot, and it took her a moment to be able to speak again.

“Well,” she finally said, gently, walking over to him. “I think you’re doing a great job.”

She grabbed his hand, and he smiled softly.

“Let me just go change out of these sweaty clothes,” she said. “And then I’ll get my bag and we can go,”

Terry felt suddenly woozy, and so it wasn’t until Charlene raised her eyebrows in anticipation that he realized he’d let a few seconds pass without answering her.

“Oh,” he stuttered. “Okay. Yeah.”

Charlene nodded before breaking their grip and walking towards the bench at the edge of the field where her gym-bag was waiting.

“We’ll take my car?” she asked, turning her head back as she walked.

“Okay!” Terry called, as he watched her walk into the building, out of sight.

Slowly, a smile crept over his face, and he felt his heart start to beat a mile a minute, as a giant lump formed in his throat. Something in him was bursting, and he felt like he could sing...and he hated singing. He didn’t understand it at all: he hadn’t meant anything by coming out here, not that he was aware of, but now...now it was like he was understanding dozens of different things for the very first time.

Walking down the hallway towards the teachers’ lounge, where she was allowed to change, Charlene pulled her bag strap tighter against her shoulder. Her heart skipped beats as she continued on her way, unable to stop thinking about what had just happened. In all she’d been through in high-school, and college, all the parties, the boyfriends, the dates…she’d never felt anything quite like this. He made her feel _real_.

It scared her almost, how intense it all was. But, she couldn’t help it; a huge smile found its way onto her face, and she felt like she could do a cartwheel down the hallway. No matter how much she knew this should scare her, the idea of going out on a date with Terry just made her happy. She liked him; there was something about him that just made her feel safe around him, to want to be around him, almost like she’d known him forever.

* * *

 

            Finn walked into his family’s kitchen late that afternoon to find his mother tending dinner on the stove. Hearing footsteps, she turned her head around, and smiled when she saw him.

“Are your friends coming over tonight?” she asked, already turned back to her cooking.

“Not tonight,” Finn said. He was about to say something else when Katie walked into the kitchen, heading towards the fridge, not even looking up from her phone for a second.

“Hey,” Finn said, turning to her. “Prom’s this weekend, right? Are you excited?”

Katie stopped what she was doing and raised her gaze to look at him oddly.

“What?” he asked.

“What’s with you?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Since when do we ever make small talk?”

“I don’t know, you’re my sister!” Finn exclaimed. “Am I allowed to want to know about your life?”

“Yeah, but you generally don’t take interest,” Katie teased. “Not that it bothers me, I’m just saying.”

“Katherine!” Mrs. Whitman snapped.

Katie simply snickered and looked at her phone again, turning back to her original task of getting a soda from the fridge. Meanwhile, Finn felt small, as it hit him how bad things were with him and his family. Things had been so different in his life the past few days, he almost forgot what the reality was. Now though, it was like he was seeing things from a new view, and mounds of regret fell onto him. Is this really what they’d become?

“You want me to bring it up to you?” his mother said, breaking him from his trance, and he shook off his thoughts, realizing he’d caught her mid-sentence.

“What?” he said.

“I said your dinner will be ready in about ten minutes,” she repeated. “Do you want to stay here and wait to bring it up to your room or should I bring it up to you?”

It took Finn a few seconds to process the section, to put together what she meant, and once again he realized that his everyday reality was this ludicrous. Had he really gone years eating every meal alone, shut away from his family, when he lived with them?

“Actually Mom,” he said, quietly, feeling so humbled that the words almost seemed hard to say. “I thought I’d eat dinner down here with you guys…if that’s okay.”

His mother stepped back slightly, and Finn watched her jaw drop slightly. Somehow, he felt like the biggest jerk in the world.

“Of…of course it’s okay Finn,” she said, and Finn could tell she was trying to hold back tears. “I would love that; your father will too.”

She gave him a slight smile, then turned back to the stove, but Finn suddenly found himself saying more.

“And…and maybe,” he stuttered. “Maybe we could watch _The Simpsons_ together after dinner? Like we used to when I was in middle school?”

This stopped his mother entirely, and she dropped her spoon to turn to him completely. He even had Katie’s attention now, who stood watching them, halfway done with closing the fridge.

Finn and his mother used to watch _The Simpsons_ together all the time when he was younger, as it had been both of their favorite show. The tradition had slowed down more and more as he’d gotten older though, until it had stopped completely. They hadn’t watched together in years, which explained the shell-shocked look that was currently on his mother’s face.

“Well…sure,” she said, and she was doing less and less of a successful job holding back her tears, which made Finn smile. “I think that would be great.”

“Great,” Finn said.

“We can have ketchup and potato chips if you want,” Mrs. Whitman joked, referring to Finn’s favorite, very messy, middle school snack, which she’d always hated him eating. “I’ll make an exception.”

They both laughed.

“Popcorn should be just fine,” Finn said. He found the thought of the snack fairly repulsive now. “And maybe some of your cookies?”

Mrs. Whitman smiled softly, and a tear finally escaped her eye to roll down her cheek.

“Anything you want,” she said.

The pair smiled at each other, before Finn turned back to his sister.

“You gonna join us Katie?”

She too stared at him in shock, before her face melted into a smile, the kind he hadn’t seen her wear in years. “Fine,” she said. “But you can’t ask me about Prom.”

“Deal,” Finn said.

They both laughed, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, Finn saw the playful little munchkin he used to chase around the backyard and read to at bedtime; the little girl who, when they were 3 and 5, he told everyone was his best friend.

“I’ll start setting the table,” Finn said to his mother, walking over to the silverware drawer.

Without a word, Katie put down her things, and went to join him.

As he laid out the forks and knives, Finn looked over to Katie, still smiling, completely changed, and to his mother, who was now humming and even dancing slightly as she continued to stir her sauce. In an instant, everything just seemed perfect, and, for some reason, he thought he might cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I may have been near tears writing the Finn scene. Things heat up next time, so prepare yourselves! Thanks for all your love and support as always, and stay magical!


	21. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey keepers! Sorry again for missing updates. I can't always be regular with them right now because of my schedule, but I will try to post when I can! Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Amanda was laying on her bed, reading before she went to sleep. Suddenly, she heard the bedroom door close, and she looked up to see Jess coming in from the bathroom. She stood almost completely still at the front of the room, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her. Amanda sat up, immediately nervous.

“What’s up?” she asked.

Jess took a deep breath before answering her sister, trying to muster up the courage to say what she was going to next. It was going to be a nightmare, she was sure, but she’d been avoiding it for far too long. She had to face this head on.

“We need to talk,” she said.

“Okay,” Amanda replied, confused, not sure what could possibly be wrong. She closed her book and set it down next to her.

Jess, overcome with nervousness again, began to pace the room, and moments of silence passed.

“Jessie you’re starting to scare me,” Amanda said.

Hearing this, Jess stopped. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then, like ripping off a band-aid, she just let it out.

“You need to talk to Finn,”

Amanda rolled her eyes and let out a loud sigh, falling back into her old position on the bed.

“Not this again,” she exclaimed angrily.

“Amanda listen,”

“I can’t believe you!” Amanda snapped.

“Mandy…”

“You’re still gonna push this on me?!”

Jess tried desperately to explain herself, but Amanda cut her off with every sentence.

“It’s not about…”

“Can’t you just accept that I don’t want to do this?”

“I’ve been having dreams!” Jess shouted, finally silencing Amanda and getting her attention once again. Amanda sat back up, and narrowed her eyes.

“ _What_?” she hissed.

Jess sighed and sat down on her own bed. She put her hands down next to her to brace herself, and looked her sister straight in the eyes.

“Ever since Casey came to us, since we met all the others,” she said, trying hard to keep her voice quiet and steady. “I’ve been having dreams again, but they’re not like…my normal dreams.”

Amanda crossed her arms and didn’t say anything, just gave Jess a cold stare, waiting to hear the rest of what she had to say. Jess swallowed hard, and held back a cry that was trying to break through. Somehow the silence was worse than any words that could’ve been said. Not needing words to know what her sister was asking, Jess continued on.

“It was right after we were all at Finn’s house the first time…all of us. And then…we were in the dream that night: together.”

“You and me?” Amanda asked.

“No; everyone: You, me, Finn, Terry, Willa, Dell, Charlie…”

Amanda made a motion to say something else, but Jess cut her off. If she stopped talking now, she wasn’t sure she’d get the courage to start up again.

“We were together Mandy, and not in the way we were now. We were _friends_ …it looked like we had been for a long time.”

Jess waited for Amanda to say something, but still silence hung in the air. She took a deep breath, and continued.

“Amanda…” She hesitated. “In the dream…someone had their arm around you, and you were smiling. The scene changed before I could see who it was but I think…”

“Stop,” Amanda said, cutting her off.

“Amanda listen to me…” Jess insisted.

“I know what you’re going to say and I don’t wanna hear it!”

“You’re not hearing me! I think these were memories!”

Jess hadn’t wanted the revelation to come out so bluntly, hoping to avoid any extra upset aside from what would surely already be coming. But Amanda was giving her no choice.

With that, Amanda pushed herself off of the bed with a huff, and stormed to the end of the room, running her hands through her hair with frustration.

“I can’t believe you,” she hissed.

 “I’m not lying Amanda!” Jess insisted, her upset quickly developing into anger. “Those dreams I had? Almost everything I saw paralleled something from those books. How do you explain that?”

“Our everyday lives have become super involved with the idea that we and these people we met are those book characters,” Amanda said. “You had a dream about it: just like anyone else would.”

 “I know how to tell the difference between a regular dream and a vision,” Jess snapped. “This was different from both of them!”

She felt her body temperature rising, and she wanted to scream. Why did her sister need to have a solution to everything? Why couldn’t she just accept this, trust her, let this whole thing be what it was?

For a few moments, neither girl said anything, and in the silence Jess forced herself to calm down. Remembering how scared she was when all of this first came to light, and remembering how she’d told herself to prepare for Amanda to resist her, she took a deep breath before speaking again, this time in a gentler tone.

“Look,” she said. “I was aware that this could’ve been a coincidence, so I made sure. I called Mattie.”

With that, Amanda turned sharply around to face her again, her eyes widened. Jess cringed. She knew this was coming, but she’d been left with no choice: there was no way to get Amanda to believe while still leaving Mattie out of the story.

“ _Mattie_?” Amanda hissed.

“Yes,” Jess said, trying to keep her voice calm. “She works in Magic Kingdom and so I met her there last week and she read the castle and…”

Amanda wouldn’t let her finish.

 “What are you doing meeting up with Mattie?” she snapped.

Amanda looked hurt, and Jess felt two inches tall.

“Manda,” she started, trying to keep her voice steady. “I’m sorry I lied, but…”

“We don’t keep secrets from each other!” Amanda yelled, her voice more broken now than angry.

The sisters stopped for a moment, and stared at each other, questions and revelations running through their minds. Their eyes seemed to communicate that they were thinking the same thing, that they were realizing how far apart from each-other they’d grown. For a moment, any anger melted away, and there was a reaching out for each-other in their gaze, an acknowledgement of what they were to each other, a desperate plea to not let go.

But Jess knew she couldn’t hold onto her feelings any longer. The plea was unsuccessful. There was no stopping this now.

“Well maybe I had to,” she said.

Amanda was taken aback, and she stumbled to find her words as anger and betrayal began to boil in her gut.

“What do you mean you _had_ to?!”

“I friended her Mattie on Facebook last year,” Jess admitted. “We talk. And after I had the dream I met her in the Magic Kingdom so she could read the castle and see if it had any memories trapped inside it. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t because you would’ve stopped me!”

“Of course I would’ve: it’s Mattie!”

 “I wasn’t the one who decided I didn’t want anything to do with her anymore, Amanda, _you_ were! Even though you knew how close we were! Even though you knew I wanted to have more friends!”

Amanda felt her face getting hot, and she wanted to cry as secret after secret poured from her sister’s lips. Jess was the one person she had in this entire world, and her heart was breaking as she was starting to think that maybe she hardly knew her at all.

“She was putting herself in danger of getting caught and us too,” she hissed, trying desperately to hold back the tears that were already pooling in her eyes. “We had to distance ourselves! I was trying to protect you!”

“ _Really_?!” Jess shot back. “Do you know where Mattie is right now? She’s at home: with her family; she got adopted! She found a better life and we’re still living in a crappy one room apartment that we pay for in cash from our off the books job, because you’ve always been so freaking stubborn about what you think is right.”

This was the moment Jess had feared, the horrible fight she’d felt building for months, for years. She felt everything in her calling out to _stop, stop!_ But she couldn’t hold back. Everything she’d felt for so long, everything shut up inside her, had finally been set free, and now it was running wild like a house fly: impossible to catch, impossible to stop, going too fast to even think about getting control of.

“We survived on _nothing_ for almost ten years because I was stubborn!” Amanda yelled, cries finding their way into her words now.

“You think so?” Jess yelled back. “Because the way I see it, _Wanda_ is ninety percent of the reason we’re still getting by, and it was because of _me_ that we got close to her. I stood up to you when she approached us and you wanted to shut her out just like you shut out everyone else!”

Jess was crying too now. Again she wanted to stop. Again she couldn’t.

“Don’t go there with this,” Amanda said, shaking her head.

“Do you honestly think we’ve been _less_ happy since this all started? Do you really, _truly_ believe that Finn would be _bad_ for you, that any of them would be bad for you, that they would be bad for _us_? Look at yourself! You’ve been refusing to get involved in this thing since it started even though you know it’s true, even though we both know there’s absolutely no denying it!”

Amanda squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it would somehow shut out her sister’s words. She couldn’t listen to it, couldn’t bear to face it, and she tried desperately to let the mantras in her head drown out the thoughts of Finn and the others that were now flooding her mind _. You’re okay alone; you have to be okay alone; don’t let anyone else in; don’t let yourself get hurt._ Still Jess continued to yell.

“You’re always glowing around Finn, and you know we always have a good time when the seven of us are together, and yet you still pretend like we’re doomed to be alone forever! Can’t you just take hold of an opportunity for once? Can’t you just believe that maybe there’s something better for…”

Suddenly, everything stopped, and Jess let out a gasp. Amanda opened her eyes to see her frozen, staring out into space, looking almost paralyzed. She started to stumble and, all else immediately forgotten, Amanda ran over to catch her in her arms. Jess still did and said nothing, and terror replaced anything else Amanda had been feeling.

“Jess?” she called.

No response.

“ _Jess_? Jessie!”

Finally, Jess came to, inhaling sharply and standing up straight again. Amanda walked around to face her, and saw her face twisted into a knot.

“I think…” she stuttered. “I think I just had a dream.”

“During the day?” Amanda asked. “That’s never happened before!”

“I know.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t…I don’t know what it means just…you were…”

Jess stopped for a moment before looking her sister straight in the eye, a look of fear plastered on her face.

“We need to talk to Finn,” she said. “Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! See you next time, and stay magical!


	22. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god....I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SO, SO SORRY. The semester super got to me, and though I found a little bit of time to write for the fic here and there, I never got around to publishing. Then the holidays came, and then I found my old PS2 and did nothing but play Kingdom Hearts for a day or two. But now I'm here! I'm back! I couldn't leave this story unfinished and I'm super excited for all of you to read the last section, because it was so much fun to dream up! Again, my apologies, and so, with that, I say...
> 
> PREVIOUSLY IN ONCE UPON A DREAM:
> 
> After altering time in 1955, the Keepers returned to a world where there were never any Overtakers, and where they never met. That is, until Casey Jordan, a 15 year old fan of the mega-popular Kingdom Keepers books, brought them together, believing them to be real. Although they didn't all believe at first, they eventually came together to investigate Casey's claims. Meanwhile, Jess had been having dreams that she believes to be memories, and after meeting with Mattie in the Magic Kingdom, they read the castle and their powers combined to see a future memory the castle would have, of everyone...including Mattie...together. 
> 
> While all the Keepers were at the Magic Kingdom investigating, Finn, after feeling that he knew Amanda for a second time, asked her on a date. She, fearing being with others, turned him down. Two nights later, Jess told Amanda about her dreams and about meeting up with Mattie, who the girls are estranged from. This sparked a huge fight which continued until Jess had a dream while awake of Finn and Amanda on Tom Sawyer Island. Now certain that Casey's theories are true, they set out to Finn's house to begin the investigation. 
> 
> And now...

Finn was laying on his bed scrolling through his phone when he heard a tapping coming from his window. Alarmed, he walked over and looked out to find Amanda standing in his backyard, throwing pebbles. She stopped as she saw him, and he opened the window to talk to her.

“Are you crazy?” he exclaimed, speaking as loudly as he could without risking waking his parents.

“I need to talk to you!” she called back.

“And it couldn’t wait until morning?!”

“ _Please_  Finn,” Amanda pleaded. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t absolutely urgent.”

Amanda looked at him desperately. She looked entirely different from the Amanda he’d known for the past week. This was nuts, he knew, and he really didn’t cherish the idea of sneaking out the same night he’d tried to start getting close with his family again.

He let out a sigh; no matter how hurt he still felt by what had happened on Friday, he couldn’t bring himself to deny her.

“Hold on a minute,” he said, turning away from the window, and Amanda flashed a quick smile.

He looked down at the window-box below him. Buried inside of it, underneath years’ worth of dust and long-since used toys, was a fire-escape ladder that had been sitting there, unused, for over a decade. His face melted into a nervous frown; he’d promised his parents, when he got it, that he’d never use it to sneak out, and he felt terrible about the prospect of doing so now, but he saw no other option.

Moments later, Amanda saw the ladder falling out Finn’s window and held her breath as she watched him climbing down. Finally, he reached the ground and jogged over to her. She smiled, and neither of them said anything for a few moments before Finn raised his eyebrows.

“What?” he asked.

“You need to come to Magic Kingdom with me,” Amanda replied. “Jess is around front with our friend Mattie. She’s gonna drive us and get us in.”

“Magic Kingdom? Why?!”

“There’s something we need to check out,”

With that, she turned and started running towards the car, but Finn grabbed her arm to stop her before she could.

“Slow down,” he exclaimed. “Check out what? What’s going on?!”

Amanda sighed. She was hoping to get away with a quick explanation.

“Can’t I just explain it on the way there?” She winced.

Finn put his hand on his hip and stared her down.

“Amanda, you came to me in the middle of the night and are asking me to run away to a theme park with you," he said. "I’m gonna need a little bit more than ‘something’s up’”

Amanda exhaled. When they’d set out on this little expedition, she had every intention of telling Finn about her abilities. Somehow though, the fact that she’d actually need to explain everything about herself to him hadn’t totally registered. Now it did though, and it was harder than she’d ever thought it would be.

 “I haven’t been completely honest with you about who I am,” she said.

Finn didn’t say anything, and Amanda could tell that he expected her to just continue. She felt a twinge of guilt in her gut at seeing how cold he was, knowing it was because of what had happened the other day. She shoved it behind her. She couldn’t focus on the past now.

“You know how, in the books, Jamie and Olivia have...powers?” she said.

Finn nodded.

“Well…”

Finn’s eyes widened as he realized what she was saying, and she cringed as he rolled his eyes and looked away from her. Her breathing hastened and her heart raced; this was not going well.

“Finn please,” she begged.

“You actually expect me to believe that?!” he exclaimed.

“Why else would I tell you?”

“I don’t know!”

Amanda sighed.

“Look,” she said. “I’m sorry about Friday, okay?! It wasn’t you. I wouldn’t have said yes to anyone; I’m too scared. It killed me to tell you no.”

“It has nothing to do with Friday!” Finn exclaimed, though he wasn’t a very convincing liar. “It has to do with the fact that you’ve been giving me the run around ever since we met! I can barely get a straight answer from you about anything, and now you show up to my house at God knows what hour and tell me that you’re some kind of witch and to come with you and I’m just supposed to trust you?”

"Fairlie, not witch," she corrected him. 

"What?"

"We're called Fairlies; it stands for  _Fairly Human_." 

Finn shook his head and turned to walk back to his room. Amanda groaned, frustrated with herself for saying the wrong thing, then ran up to grab his arm and stop him.

 His eyes widened as he turned to face her and she took a deep breath. She knew what she had to do, and it terrified her. Closing her eyes and focusing all her energy, she let go of Finn’s arm and let herself float off of the ground.

Watching her, Finn stumbled back and nearly fell down. She stared at him straight in the eyes as she floated two inches above the grass. He was both in awe and terrified at the same time.

She came back down to the ground and stared at him with her hand on her hip.

“Alright,” he gulped. “Now I believe you.”

“Great,” Amanda said, quickly switching gears back out of her witch stunt. “Then you need to come with me.”

She grabbed his hand and started running to the front of the house. Now it was Finn’s turn to stop her.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “Slow down! You still haven’t given me any details!”

Amanda sighed. She really wished that this could be easier, or better yet, that her life wasn’t this insane.

“Jess had a dream about you and me,” she explained. “We were on Tom Sawyer Island at night, so we have to go there now.”

She started walking away again, but once again Finn stopped her.

“How does that add up?”

“My sister’s dreams are never insignificant. If she dreamed that we were on Tom Sawyer Island, then there’s something we need to see on Tom Sawyer Island.”

Finn felt almost dizzy.

“We have to hurry,” Amanda continued. “We got lucky because the park closes at 1 tonight, but it’s already 11:30, and we need to get there, get in, and find a place to hide before they close.”

She started walking away again, and Finn was about to go with her, when suddenly it dawned on him what she’d said, and he stopped short.

“Wait...what?”

Amanda faced him, and she looked scared.

“We have to be on Tom Sawyer Island after closing,” she said. “We can’t cross over like in the books so…”

Finn felt a chill go over him. This couldn’t be happening. He’d accepted a lot of things since he’d met Casey but  _this_? Somehow he never conceived that it might come to this, though now it made perfect sense that it would. Of course, the prospect of what Casey said actually being true had never seemed totally real to him...until now.

He felt paralyzed as he thought of his parents, asleep in bed, happy to have spent time with their son for the first time in years, not knowing that he was currently out of the house, betraying their trust. He thought of them waking in the middle of the night to a phone call saying that he’d been arrested for trespassing on Disney property, or worse, waking up in the morning to hear that his body had been fished out of the Rivers of America. He thought he might be sick.

“Finn I know this is scary,” Amanda said softly. He didn’t look at her, his eyes instead fixed out into space, but her voice was calming, and he focused on it to keep his fears at bay.

“I’m scared too,” she continued. “But we were meant for this: somehow I’m sure of it.”

Finn still said nothing, but Amanda felt suddenly confident looking at him.

“I know it’s a lot to ask you to trust me,” she continued. “But I need you to. Something is happening here, and not just with all of us, with you and me. I’ve known it since the first day we met, and I know you have too; I’m sorry I wouldn’t admit it sooner. But please...trust me on this now.”

Finn finally looked at her again, and their eyes locked. Something happened between them in that moment; something connected them. In that moment they knew that, no matter what version of the past was true, and no matter what would come in the future, they were in this together. Fate had for some reason decided that they were a team, and they couldn’t deny it any longer.

“Let’s get this over with,” Finn said. “My Dad wakes up for work at 5, and he’ll know if I’m not home by then.”

The joy Amanda felt in that moment couldn’t be matched by anything she’d ever experienced before. She was so happy that she didn’t even have time to wonder why it was happening. A huge grin spread across her cheeks.

Watching her, despite any nerves he felt before, Finn couldn’t help but smile too. He knew what the risks were, but suddenly he was willing to take them. Walking to stand next to her, he grabbed her hand, and looked her in the eyes, silently asking if she was thinking the same things as him. She looked down at their hands, and for a moment she didn’t do anything, but then she looked up at him and smiled softly, and he knew the answer:  _she did._

She led him to the front of his house, where a girl he didn’t recognize was sitting in the driver’s seat. Jess leaned to the see him through the window from the passenger’s side.

“Hi Finn!” she called excitedly. “This is our friend Mattie. She’s gonna drive us.”

Amanda smiled eagerly up at Finn, and instantly he felt the nerves begin to boil in his stomach again. He’d been so completely on autopilot before that it was just beginning to dawn on him what it meant that’d he’d said yes.

“I have to go get my phone and my Magic Band,” he stuttered, walking back towards his house.

He was halfway back to his room and had still not stopped looking at Amanda. Walking backwards, he stumbled over a twig, and Amanda laughed.

“You know this really is crazy,” he called out to her.

“Well it might be,” she teased. “But then what are you for following me?”

 She smirked at him, and he let out a chuckle before running off to start what he was sure would be the craziest night of his life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Sorry again for the long hiatus! See you on Wednesday with the next chapter!


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! Things are heading towards the climax now, and I'm really excited about sharing the next few chapters! Enjoy!

45 minutes later, the four soon-to-be criminals walked hurriedly through the Magic Kingdom. They weren’t doing anything wrong yet of course, but they avoided eye contact with as many people as they could in anticipation of the nervousness that was about to come.

“Explain to me what this plan is again?” Finn asked as they continued down Main Street.

“I called Dell while we were on our way over to you,” Jess explained. “He managed to get a schedule of the security checks after closing. We’re going to work around that.”

“Work around it?”

“We’ll hide in one bathroom and leave just before they check it, then carefully head to a bathroom that they’ve already checked. Then we wait there and we’re thinking we should be in the clear by 2:30,” Amanda said.

“Locks?!”

“I can open those with my powers.”

Finn stopped to process everything that had just been said, but the girls kept watching. Realizing he’d fallen behind, he jogged to catch up to them.

“How do you expect to not get caught?!” he exclaimed.

“Is he always this squeamish?” Mattie asked, and the three girls shared a laugh. Finn was beginning to feel that he was in over his head.

* * *

 

            Finn had never realized that the Magic Kingdom was never silent…until it was. Sitting in the women’s bathroom between Adventure and Frontierland, he was acutely aware of the fact that the entire place was almost completely devoid of sound. All he could hear was the sound of breathing, and the ticking of his watch; it made time stand still. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting here, but it felt like forever.

His head turned to Amanda, who was sitting a bit apart from him with her knees pulled in close to her. She looked solemn, like she was deep in thought about something.

“You okay?” he asked.

She startled slightly as she looked over at him, like she was surprised by his being there, but she eventually smiled lightly and exhaled through her nose before looking over to her right, where Jess and Mattie leaned against the other wall that formed the corner they were all sitting in, laying with their eyes closed on each other’s shoulders.

“I kinda had it shoved in my face tonight that I’m a pretty shitty friend,” she said hardly, looking at the floor. “Forget sister.”

Her gaze turned back over to Jess and Mattie, where it stayed. Finn had never seen her this vulnerable.

“Hey,” he said, struggling to find the right thing to say. “Don’t beat yourself up. I’m sure it’s not that bad. I know you.”

“You haven’t known me long enough,” Amanda said, a cry coming to her voice.

Seeing her this way stirred something in Finn and his gut wrenched. He searched for a moment for what to say, then scooted closer to her.

“If it helps,” he said. “I’m not feeling much better about myself. I just realized that I’ve spent the last few years treating my family like garbage so…”

He sunk further into the floor and slid his hands back through his hair. The entire reality of the realizations he’d come to that night were weighing on him.

“You?” Amanda scoffed. “Please.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“The great _Liam Kane_ not being close to his family? Highly unlikely.”

“I’m not Liam Kane,”

“But you _are_ ,” Amanda said, sitting up straighter. “That’s why we’re here isn’t it?”

“I’m still not him!” Finn insisted. “Not right now at least. In this world I’m just...plain old Finn Whitman.”

“You _are_ like Liam,” Amanda said. Then, softly, looking away from him. “I can see it in your eyes.”

She hadn’t meant for Finn to hear her, but he had, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her then. With everything she said, everything they did, every moment they spent together, he felt more and more drawn to her. Suddenly, sitting here, it dawned on him what was happening, what it meant that he’d come with her tonight.

“Amanda,” he said nervously.

“What?” she asked, turning to him. Her eyes were wet.

“What does it mean?” he asked. “I mean...if Jess’ dream is right and we find something tonight and Casey’s theory is definitely true….if we’re really _Liam Kane and Olivia Kendall_...what do we do then?”

Amanda’s breathing hastened and their eyes locked on each other’s, not moving. There was something right on the edge of her memory, something ignited by him, only him, something warm, something familiar...something….

Their gaze was broken by the sound of voices coming from right outside the door.

_“I don’t even see why we need to do this. We make sure everyone leaves the park. Why would anyone still be in the bathrooms?”_

_“We’ve only got a couple more to check.”_

Amanda and Finn both stood up, panicked.

“What are they doing here?!” Finn whispered.

“Do I look like I know?!”

Next to them, Jess and Mattie blinked their eyes open, confused.

“What’s happening?” Jess yawned.

“The security guards are here genius!” Amanda hissed. “I thought you confirmed the schedule.”

“They must’ve changed it!” She and Mattie were fully awake in an instant now.

Finn thought he might be sick. All the fears he’d had a couple of hours ago were inches away, and there didn’t seem to be anyway out. His heart was in his stomach; his mother was going to be heartbroken. She’d never trust him again.

“What do we do?” Mattie whispered.

They heard the sound of the door opening.

Amanda was hyperventilating and looked quickly back and forth between the three of them. The door closed, and the voices from before were now in the room with them. Amanda looked straight ahead then and stood tall, as if she’d decided something.

“Jess, grab Mattie’s hand,” she said straightly.

“What?”

“Just do it!”

Jess did what she said, but Amanda was silent as the footsteps grew nearer. They couldn’t be far from them now.  

“Amanda…” Jess started to ask, but before she could say another word, Amanda lurched out to grab her and Finn’s hands.

Finn didn’t know what happened, and when it first happened, he couldn’t even process where he was. One second he was standing next to Amanda, and the next he was staring down at the spot where they’d been. He looked next to him and saw Amanda, lying flat, clenching her face and breathing heavily. Eventually it dawned on him...they were on the ceiling.

He was about to scream, but then he heard the footsteps and the voices from before coming closer towards them, and he held his mouth shut.

_Did you hear something?_

_I think you’re just paranoid Carol._

_No I’m not! This is our job isn’t it?_

Finn looked past Amanda to Jess, who met his eyes with a silent gaze that he somehow understood: _just hold on; she’s got this._

A flashlight shined underneath them, and Finn held his breath. Time seemed to stand still before the security guards went back to talking to each other.

_See? I told you. Nothing to worry about._

The guard who had been identified as Carol stood still for a moment, like she was still unsure. Finn prepared himself for the worst, thinking that she might look up at them. But then, after a moment, she shook her head.

_Whatever, I guess I’m just tired_

_I’m telling you you’re watching too many of those damn movies_

Their voices faded away as their conversation changed, and soon the close of the door sounded, bringing more relief than any of them ever thought such a sound could bring. After a moment, they floated towards the floor, and Amanda immediately collapsed with a cry, releasing their hands. Jess immediately rushed to catch her, and both she and Mattie were frantic, asking Amanda if she was okay, and how she did it. Finn thought he heard Jess crying.

As she started to catch her breath, Amanda looked over at Finn, who had been staring. As their eyes met, he couldn’t tell which of his emotions was winning the battle for dominance: worry, wonder, or fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think will happen next? Thanks for reading and see you soon!


	24. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! Looks like I've fallen off the regular posting schedule, but I know I haven't posted in a few weeks so I decided to post today. Bit of a longer chapter today. I'm really really excited about this chapter and I hope you enjoy it!

A while later, Finn and the others walked quickly through Frontierland, taking care to stop behind a table or snack cart every few minutes to check for security. After their close call in the bathroom, they’d decided it best not to stay in one place for too long, and to get out of the park as soon as possible. So far, they’d been in the clear, and they rushed towards Tom Sawyer Island, praying to forces they weren’t even sure they believed in that they wouldn’t be seen.

“Alright,” Jess said. “When we get there, Mattie and I will stay over on this side to keep watch, and keep security away from you. You two take the raft over to the island and see what happens.”

“You’re not coming with us?!” Amanda exclaimed.

“It was only you two in my dream. It has to be you two now.”

Amanda looked back at Finn for a second, and he thought he heard her let out a huff. He was wounded slightly by it, but said nothing as they kept walking.

Finally, they reached the loading station for the rafts. Jess turned around to face the group and took a deep breath.

“Okay,” she said. “Here we go.”

* * *

 

            Five minutes later, Finn and Amanda were on the raft that normally took guests to and from the island. Amanda sat in the corner while Finn manned the controls. He must’ve taken the ride over a hundred times, but there was something different about it now. The raft, usually packing guests in like sardines, was empty save for the two of them, and night made the water appear black and bottomless so that he couldn’t see what was ahead of him at all. It was haunting.

The silence was the worst part: the world completely devoid of sound save for the whir of the engine and the lap of the waves. His mind was running wild again, and he felt like he was in a thick fog, like he might as well have not been there. How could this all be happening? How could his life have changed so much in a week? What would his mother think if she knew?

“Did I say something wrong before?”

He turned his head to Amanda’s voice, small and shy, coming from the other side of the raft.

“What?” he asked, not having totally processed what she said.

“You haven’t said a word to me since we left the bathroom.”

Finn looked back out at the water and said nothing, but eventually Amanda spoke again, even more quietly than before.

“You’re afraid of me,” she said.

“What do you mean? Why would I be afraid of you?” Finn asked. He didn’t look at her.

“You saw what I did in the bathroom before and you’re afraid of me now,” Amanda said hardly. “Don’t worry. I’m used to it.”

She mumbled out the last part, looking away from him. Finn was instantly filled with guilt, and he sighed. He really wasn’t good at this.

“I’m not afraid of you,” he said, turning to her.  “I’m just overwhelmed by all of this.”

“And you think I’m not?”

Finn said nothing, silenced by the sudden burst of humility.

“Finn,” Amanda continued. “I’m just as scared as you are. You think I ever expected or prepared for any of this? I was getting ready to go to sleep tonight and next thing I know I’m in the Magic Kingdom illegally on my way to try and prove that I’m actually a book character!”

They stared at each other for a moment before Amanda started to giggle, realizing the ridiculousness of what she’d actually said. Finn joined in, and soon they were both laughing loudly, as Amanda threw her head into her hands.

“Oh god,” she said, looking up and pushing her hair back. “Am I crazy?”

“Well if you are,” Finn said. “Then what am I for following you?”

They laughed again, lightly now, and Amanda turned her eyes slightly away from him, feeling that same charm that only he seemed to be able to make her feel. She’d been cold all night despite the humidity, but now she felt a warmth fill her cheeks, and for the first time, she wasn’t so afraid of being close to him.

“Finn,” she said, seriously. “What…what _does_ it mean?”

“What does what mean?”

“In the bathroom before, you asked me what it meant if we really are ‘Liam and Olivia’…so what does it mean?”

The question left Finn frozen. He didn’t have an answer for her. He wasn’t even sure if there was an answer, despite the fact that he’d asked her the same thing before. It all seemed so impossible, and it went beyond even their relationship; what was going to happen if it turned out all of this was true? How was he supposed to handle it if it turned out he’d lived another life that he couldn’t remember? How was he supposed to be sure that anything he felt was real ever again?

For a moment he came out of his mind back into reality, and in that moment he saw her, _really_ saw her, and suddenly his thoughts were taken in a completely different direction, because _God_ he liked her. That relentless pang of familiarity returned, and he knew, above all else, that he wanted to be with her. He still couldn’t explain it, because they barely knew each other, but she made him feel at home.

Their eyes were locked, and as each second passed Finn was more and more sure of it.

_I know you. How do I know you?_

They were so focused on each other that Finn hadn’t even noticed that the raft had reached the other side of the lake. Staring at each other in silence, they both lurched forward as the raft bumped into the dock, stopping short with a loud _thump_.

“We’re here,” Finn said quietly after a moment.

He let down the rope which blocked them from the raft’s entrance, and stepped out onto the island before offering Amanda his hand to help her over. She smiled lightly as she passed him, and his heart started to beat faster, though he begged it to stop.

“So,” he said. “What now?”

Amanda was about to give him an answer, but then stopped, realizing that she didn’t have one. Jess hadn’t remembered what exactly she’d seen them doing on the island, if she’d actually seen them doing anything at all. In the rush to chase the answers, they hadn’t taken too much time to plan things, and now they were stranded without any kind of lead. She exhaled with frustration, and a few moments of silence passed as they both understood that they had nothing.

“Well I guess we should just start walking then,” Finn eventually said.

Amanda nodded in silence, and they went on their way.

* * *

 

            Five minutes had passed since they’d arrived on the island, and so far no one had said anything. Finn’s heart raced so loudly now that it was the only thing he was aware of, and his palms had gone completely sweaty. He felt like he was back at his sixth grade dance, at the punch table with Emma Mosley, the first time he’d been alone next to a girl. The whole thing was ridiculous, he knew, and he cursed himself silently for being unable to move past it.

 _Just talk to her_ he begged himself. _There’s nothing to be nervous about._

He suddenly became aware of the fact that Amanda had stopped walking, and was currently staring at him with her hand on her hip.

“What?” he asked.

“I said we should turn here,” she said, pointing at a path on the left.

“Oh,” Finn stuttered, forcing a smile through the increased embarrassment that was currently burning through him.

Amanda smiled back, and they turned, walking, again, in silence. They both looked down at the path as Amanda pushed her hair behind her ear and Finn stuck his hands into his pockets. With the music shut off, the only sound present was the chirping of the crickets and the sound of their feet shuffling across the dirt.

“So,” Finn finally said. “How’d you and Jess meet?”

“Hm?” Amanda asked, looking back at him, almost like she was surprised that he’d said anything at all.

“Come on, I know you’re not sisters; you’re the same age and you’re clearly not twins. How did you meet?”

Amanda waited for a moment before shrugging.

“You’ve read the books,” she said. “The story’s right there: it’s how Casey found us, remember?”

“Yeah but that’s Olivia’s story,” Finn insisted. “I want to know yours.”

Amanda stopped briefly again and stared directly at Finn, her smile small and shocked, though he could barely see her in the dark.

“We uh…we met in a foster home,” she explained, as she continued walking. “That part’s pretty much the same. When our parents bit it and the government found out we had powers, they decided that we weren’t quite fit to be a member of any of the normal families in society…so they put us in a place where they could study us and keep us a secret.”

Amanda’s voice was hardened and bitter, and she wasn’t looking at Finn anymore. Now it was his turn to stare. Realizing after a moment how he was looking at her, Amanda pulled back, realizing how blunt she’d become.

“Anyway, Jess was my best friend and when we were fourteen we decided we were fed up. So we left.”

“And you’ve been on your own ever since?”

Amanda looked over at Finn. His eyes were wide. She groaned and stopped again.

“Look, I don’t need any sympathy okay?! We’re perfectly fine. Let’s just keep going.”

Amanda started taking large strides forward and Finn had to jog to keep up with her.

 “You’re _not_ okay according to what you told me before,” he insisted.

“I don’t wanna talk about it Finn!” she shouted.

They both went silent and she stuttered for a bit before turning her gaze towards the floor, hugging her arm.

Finn sighed. He couldn’t seem to get this right.

“Look I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have pushed you like that.”

“It’s fine,” Amanda said quietly. “We’re both just nervous about this. We need to get it done.”

Finn nodded, and they kept walking without another word until they came to a dead end. A large wooden sign towered above them and announced the name of the area they’d reached: _Fort Langhorn._

“Isn’t this where…” Amanda started.

“Yup,” Finn replied, neither of them needing to hear or say the rest of the sentence to know what they were thinking. They looked at each other and swallowed.

“Should we look around?” Amanda asked.

“Seems as good a place as any.”

Amanda nodded and they began to wander. Finn looked up at everything around him. He hadn’t been here in years, maybe a decade: not since he was a little boy. Tom Sawyer Island was filled with playgrounds and caves, but this one had always been a favorite of kids and families. He’d often come with Dillard and run through the area’s small cave, pretending they were knights of the round table on a mission. The memory brought a smile to his face, but then his thoughts drifted again: was it really true that his entire life was fake? If Casey was right…were any of his memories even real?

“You okay?” Amanda asked, breaking his train of thought.

“What?” he stuttered, not realizing he’d zoned out. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“Maybe we could look by the trees.”

Finn didn’t say anything, but simply nodded his head. Amanda stared at him.

“Finn you’re scaring me,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’m fine I just….if you’d told me this is where I was gonna be tonight….”

“Believe me I get it. So let’s just get this over with and see what we can find so we can get out of here and get you home.”

She walked over to the tree towards their left, and Finn followed, though he really still wasn’t paying any conscious attention.

 “You know I always felt like I belonged here as a kid,” he said.

“Fort Langhorn?” Amanda asked, looking around the tree now.

“No, Disney. There was just…something different about it compared to everything else: something special.”

“Uh huh…” Amanda said, her focus drawn away from him. Her eye caught something on the back side of the tree.

“My family likes it and all and we have annual passes, but it’s more than that for me. It feels like something’s just….calling me? You ever feel that?”

“Sure,” Amanda wasn’t even sure of what he was saying at all anymore. She moved closer to the tree and tried to make out exactly what she was seeing.

“I always wondered if it meant anything…and I thought I was really stupid for thinking that…but now maybe I’m thinking I’m not. Maybe this has been the answer all along. And that excites me, but it scares me too…you know what I mean?”

Amanda didn’t answer him.

“Amanda?” he called. Still nothing.

The silence finally managed to turn his head, and when he did he saw her staring at the tree next to them, hyperventilating, her whole body close to shaking.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, jogging to stand next to her.

“I think you need to see this,” she said, her voice trembling. She pointed a finger at a spot on the tree.

Finn looked at where she was pointing and leaned in closer. It looked like there was something etched into the tree. He leaned closer and was able to make out a heart, and two sets of initials. He read them to himself, and, after a moment, suddenly realized what they were. His heart skipped a beat.

Scratched into the tree on Tom Sawyer Island were the initials: _F.W + A.L_

“Those are…” Finn started.

“Our initials,” Amanda finished.

“That’s what Liam does in the book,” Finn said, although he knew they both knew it already. “He does it so Olivia can find out that he’s in 1955. Except these are…”

“ _Our_ initials,” Amanda repeated.

“Maybe it’s a coincidence,” Finn said after a moment.

“Or maybe…” Amanda started, but she didn’t need to finish.

The two looked up, and for the last of many times since meeting, their eyes locked, only now there was more in the look than there ever had been before. Amanda’s eyes were wide, and welling up with tears, and Finn shook where he stood.

He couldn’t stop staring at her now, at her eyes, brown and deep and speckled with gold and filled with heartache and loss and thousands of stories that he wanted to learn, wanted to be a part of. The familiarity he felt whenever he was around her returned once more, if it had ever left, and now it was screaming. The answer was right there, within reach, he was sure, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop searching for it anymore. He knew this girl, and not just because he’d met her a week ago.

He continued to look into her eyes as the tears continued to well up in them, and her the fear on her face became more and more evident. Something about them, about their color, was familiar. He hadn’t just seen her before, he’d seen her eyes before. He knew her eyes. He’d looked into them like this, admired them… _loved them_.

Suddenly, a distant memory came to him, a memory he didn’t even know he had. It felt like a memory of a dream, a dream he’d forgotten as soon as he’d had it, but that was now coming back. He was somewhere, somewhere familiar, and there was a girl, a girl that was laughing, that was making him smile, a girl who didn’t have a name then but who now had a name that was resting just at the edge of his tongue. And then, it hit him, and everything connected; there was her name, and here were her eyes, and not because he was remembering them from the dream; he was looking right at them.

Amanda. It was Amanda. Amanda was the girl he’d been dreaming about, before he even knew her, and Amanda was standing in front of him now, making him suddenly nothing but certain that Casey was right. All the doubt was gone, and Amanda was the only evidence he needed.

Not quite aware even that he was doing it, he began to lean in, and she threw her hands out in a startled panic, trying to stop him.

“What are you doing?” she asked, cries just about ready to break through into her voice.

“You asked me to trust you before when I came here,” he said. “Now it’s time for you to trust me.”

Amanda wanted to protest, because surely this had to be wrong, but she couldn’t. The tree carving was the final push she’d needed. Even without the memory there, she knew somewhere deeper than she could reach that this was right, that _Finn_ was right.

She leaned in to meet him and they moved slowly until, finally, their lips met, just as the first stream of tears poured from her eyes and ran down her cheeks to meet their lips. Quickly, his arms wrapped around her waist and hers came up to his neck, her hands tangling themselves up in his hair. She’d been holding this back since she’d met him.

They had been kissing for a few seconds when suddenly she gasped, and then it was like she was on a different plane.

It all happened so quickly that until it was over she wasn’t even quite sure what was happening. A thousand scenes seemed to flash before her eyes all at once, quickly, like they were each a single frame on an ancient movie projector. They were things that she was sure had never happened to her, but as each of them flashed by, somehow, she became aware of the fact that they had. These were her memories, stolen from her in a way that she didn’t even know they were gone until the second they returned.

She was with a boy, a boy who she loved, who she couldn’t be without, a boy who made her fears disappear, who made it so that any other pain she felt in life never mattered. She was talking to him in the school hallway, running with him hand in hand through Animal Kingdom, holding tightly onto his neck as deadly waves threatened to capsize them. He was kissing her on the sidewalk near her foster home, and next to the bleachers at homecoming, and on the dancefloor at Prom. He was dressed in an old newsboy style outfit, picking her up and spinning her around in his arms. He was everything to her. His smile was the most beautiful thing she knew to exist. And he had a name, a name that came to her mind and made her heart feel as if it had exploded outside of her chest.

She pulled away from him as she gulped for air, and her eyes popped open. She saw him standing just where he’d been before, wide eyed now, only she didn’t see him as a boy she’d met a week ago; she saw him as the boy from her memories, who she’d met in gym class in the eighth grade.

Her body shook and she thought she might collapse as his name escaped her lips with a high-pitched cry.

“ _Finn_?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D. Can't wait to share what happens next! See you soon!


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